Fairy Tail - Champions
by Seanovan
Summary: Taking place after Ch. 545 (sorry anime-only folks, SPOILERS), it's time for a more chill version of the Grand Magic Games! Queen Hisui has called forward the guilds of Fiore for a little summer competition, and this time there's no tricks or great villains, it's just wizards fighting wizards! Time to find out who Fiore's strongest guild is! Open to battle suggestions, by the way!
1. Prologue - Crocus, X793

**Ah, a new _Fairy Tail_ fan-fic about the Grand Magic Games. Original. But, I wanted to do something a little different: no great, evil schemes in this one, it's gonna be what the Grand Magic Games were always meant to be! We'll see some fun battles, competitions, and maybe a little romance. For now, enjoy this little prologue to the story, taking place right where the manga leaves off! **

* * *

A beautifully clear blue sky draped over the long stretch of open hills and lush jade plains, marking the summer season in the Fiore Kingdom. The happy hum-drum of conversation filled the half-dozen carts of wizards headed south on the newly established Queens-Road; while each cart held its own share of different kinds of magic, all conversation cloaked itself in one topic that brought glee not just to them, but to the scores of other guilds travelling at this time: the Grand Magic Games.

Light music from a lute played in the minds of all the wizards, with all but two wearing a pleasant grin upon their face, even if they slept through the trip. The path, smoothed from years of wear and travel, sloped on its final hill as the great city of Crocus, adorned in high buildings and starring the great Fiore Castle and Dragon Arena, emerged into plain sight, not a few hours away. Several of the carts allowed the wafting smells of the countryside to float into their cabins, keeping the windows open and allowing small breezes to filter through and keep the burgeoning summer heat from the inside.

All but one, that is, but in exchange for continual pleasant smells and nice, somber dreams, there was the oft-smell of bile spewing from one man's mouth and the fidgeting blue cat within the lap of one young, beautiful witch, Lucy Heartfilia.

The group hit another bump in the road and Natsu Dragneel lurched out the window again, but didn't spew his morning breakfast from his mouth this time. Instead his head just hung out the side window. Happy the Exceed once more shifted in Lucy's lap, messing up her nice skirt and leaving more blur fur on it. She pinched a few furs on his head but he made nothing of it.

Across from her, Gray Fullbuster sat with his arms crossed, head bowed, and eyes closed. Next to him was Juvia Lockser, who'd been resting in Gray's arms the entire time, and finally there was the ever-proud Titania, Erza Scarlet, who, with a small grin on her face, turned the page of Lucy's newly published novel. Lucy eyed the page she was on and recalled the chapter Erza was reading. She'd been reading in silence the entire trip, since dawn, when the great Fairy Tail guild departed Magnolia for the Grand Magic Games.

Lucy held the summons in her hand, gifted to her from Master Makarov Dreyar. "Under no circumstances am I worthy to meet with the queen of this country when it was not I who saved it, but you kids," he'd said. "Lucy, you hold onto it. I think Queen Hisui will like to see your smiling face more than my wrinkly one."

She'd initially anticipated the summons to be for just getting to see Fairy Tail about something, but the indistinguishable seal of the Grand Magic Games sent a few shivers down her spine. Fairy Tail was being asked to participate this year, but not technically the Grand Magic Games, but the Dragon Festival.

"Upon reflection of the previous years' battles, it has been decided by my counsel and I that it would not be appropriate to continue to call the great games of our kingdom the Dragon King Festival, as we do not wish to observe the dragon Acnologia with reverence; instead, the games shall be renamed the Dragon Festival in honor of the seven brave Dragon Slayers and six bold dragons that fought and saved our world against the threats of FACE and the now-debunked Alvarrez Empire." Hisui then signed it with, on a personal note apparently, "Loved your book, Lucy, keep up the good work!"

Lucy held the note close to her chest, and heard her Celestial Keys jingle at her side. Even Queen Hisui regarded her as a friend. She was surrounded by those that loved her, even if one of them continued to puke their brains out the side of the cart. The others in the carts and cabins ahead and behind loved her. Years ago she never could have dreamed of this, she could only dream of escaping. Now the queen of her country sent her a personal message. She grinned at the warmth in her heart. Mom, Dad, I'm sure you'd be proud of me.

The mobile guild of Fairy Tail rumbled across the countryside until they began to slow down, and Natsu gave a faint call of praise to the driver. Lucy poked her head at the window, and saw Master and Mirajane Strauss up ahead speaking with the guard at the gate, just confirming their arrival. Curious that it wasn't Gildarts who was out there speaking with them, since it was likely that Makarov was going to try and thrust the title of MAster on him the next chance he got. Eh, better to have a pretty face like Mira, Lucy figured. Seemed to be Master's logic these days, and it probably worked.

Lucy grinned an evil little grin when they got going and she looked to a suffering Natsu. She felt bad for him, but seeing arguably the strongest wizard in Fiore get humbled by something as simple as motion made her feel just a little better.

Happy climbed atop her head and gawked with her at the city sights. A few people recognized her-or Happy-and waved, so the two of them waved back enthusiastically. Erza nodded and set her book aside, then crossed her arms over her armor and watched Crocus go by as well.

"Simply beautiful," she muttered.

"Yeah," Lucy said, her mouth still hanging open quite foolishly, but she didn't care.

They drove past what would be their temporarily hostel if they were lucky enough to qualify. Lucy rolled her eyes, but felt a little seed of nerves form in her stomach. She'd been called up once again to participate. The majority of their team sat in this cabin, and their two other members, the drunken beauty Cana Alberona and the fiery metalhead Gajeel Redfox, were up ahead, with the more rambunxious members of Fairy Tail. No doubt Cana pregamed the whole time and Gajeel wallowed in doom like Natsu; being a Dragon Slayer certainly had major ups and major downs.

The caravan slowed until it came to a halt, sinking into another line of caravans about five-deep now. Lucy looked to a cabin next to her bearing the mark of Mermaid Heel. How long ago had it been since they arrived?

All the cabin doors open and they all exited. Natsu and Gajeel took a little tumble while Lucy braced herself against the smooth cobblestone floors and gaped to the back portion of the castle. On a balcony, way up high, stood Hisui, Arcadios, and Darton; the latter two scowled as per normal while Hisui nodded her head to Lucy in welcoming.

Lucy reached back into the cabin and pulled her travel back out while the driver saw to their cart of things, as well as the massive cart of supplies Erza had tethered to the back of their cart.

"You know, Erza, it makes it pretty hard for anyone to drive when you've got that giant cart of yours blocking the road." Evergreen approached, wearing a dapper low-cut dress bearing the same color as her eyes. Erza sported her armor over her own scarlet dress, and Lucy had a nice blouse and skirt on. All the girls had dressed nice in response to the royal invitation, and the boys tried to. Gray cleaned up nice, as did Gajeel and Elfman, but little could be expected for those like Natsu, Gildarts, and Laxus Dreyar, who clambered out of the same cart as the Thunder Tribe did. Freed and Bixslow followed just behind him, continuing a conversation they'd probably been having.

"I don't know, Ever, I think all you'd need to do is just turn when it does, right?" Erza asked, shrugging.

Evergreen pursed her lips. "Got me there. So, we were wondering and couldn't get a straight answer, why did we come straight here and not-"

The driver finished moving their things from the trunk and closed the doors, then took hold of the magic handle and the caravan started off again, headed for their base. Evergreen watched them go in silence and Erza patted her shoulder gingerly.

"That's why," Erza said. "A little less walking so we don't get our clothes all ruffled up."

As if on karmic cue, though, someone bounded around a corner. Sharp, cat-like eyes and a flurry of cape was all Lucy saw before the figure dashed across the way and wrapped Erza into an immediate hug, arms and legs clinging around her tight.

"Oh, Erzie, I'm so glad you finally made it!" Milliana of Mermaid Heel nuzzed her head and ears into Erza's shoulder and neck. "Kagura was starting to think you wouldn't want to come."

"Don't place all of this blame upon me, Mill." Lucy followed the voice to Kagura Mikazuchi, who wore a beautiful tight purple dress flowing down to her ankles. She had thick white gloves and held her sword, Archenemy, in one hand, like normal. But, unlike normal, she had a glowing smile upon her face. Milliana clambered from Erza but still held her hand as Erza clasped Kagura's forearm, and vice versa.

"It's great to see you, Kagura," Erza said.

"It will be even greater to see you on the battlefield," Kagura said.

Erza chuckled. "Indeed. I hope you've still kept up with your training in these peace times?"

Kagura nodded. "After seeing what that monster did to my brother last year, I've resolved to ensure that never happens to me or anyone else that I love. I intend to show you, Titania, the fruits of my labor."

"I look forward to it," Erza said, and released her grasp.

"Hurry up, Erzie, the rest of Mermaid Heel is dying to see you again!" Milliana said, and tugged at Erza. Erza managed to hold her in place long enough to turn to Lucy, Gray, and Juvia and say, "I'll meet you all at the dinner tonight, apparently I have other pressing matters to attend to."

Lucy shrugged, nodded, and let Erza go. She was just about to let out a slight sigh when a muscly arm descended around her shoulder and pulled her in close, almost frilling up her hair.

"Ah, ain't it great to be back here," Natsu said. "Last time we were here I almost melted the dang stadium!"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "I suggest we try to avoid that as best we can."

"No promises. I'm sure the others will try and out-do me, though, isn't that right Happy?"

The Dragon Slayer and Celestial Wizard turned to the small blue cat who stared absent-mindedly forward, clutching his hands together in an odd bit of sadness.

"Oh, geez, he's still upset about Carla, isn't he?" she asked.

"Cheer up, pal, she's probably here with Wendy right now," Natsu said. He smiled. "You wanna head inside and she if we find her?"

Happy's face brimmed with Natsu's trademark determination and his wings blew out from his back. "Aye, sir! We'll find that lovely little traitor even if it kills me!"

Natsu roared with passionate excitement as well and followed Happy into the castle, forcing Makarov's hand to follow them inside and make sure nothing got broken. Mirajane and Laxus both burst into the laughter at the sight. Lucy did as well, and shouldered her pack. She walked solo through some of the carts and cabins, eyeing the other guilds that'd been brought into the city already: Fairy Tail, obviously, Mermaid Heel, Lamia Scale, Quattro Cerberus, and apparently first to arrive, Blue Pegasus. Lucy raised an eyebrow. She couldn't hear, see, or most importantly smell that man Ichiya anywhere. Must've headed into the castle already.

Lucy glanced over her shoulder while the rest of Fairy Tail wandered about the cobblestone driveway, mingling with whoever was around and just getting a good stretch in before heading inside with their things. By guessing at the state of the Sun she had to guess it was only around three or four, so they had plenty of time before dinner, and before the others would arrive.

She spotted Levy hanging all by herself while Gajeel spoke with Jet and Droy about something. Panther Lily sat on her shoulder. Lucy skirted through the carts over to her best friend, who grinned up at her and folded up a book.

"Hey Lu, have a good ride?" Levy asked, stretching her forearms. She wore a fine white dress; modest, but gorgeous as ever.

"Good as it can be with one of those Dragon Slayers puking their brains out the entire time," Lucy said, leaning back and resting against Gajeel's tight steel muscles. She felt his body rumble with a chuckle.

"I held up better than Salamander, I bet," Gajeel said.

"Yeah, you're welcome for that," Levy said, and rolled her eyes. "You have all your things?"

"I do, but, you don't think we're going to have an event tonight, do you?" Lucy asked.

Levy shook her head. "Nah, but, you never really know around here."

Lucy nodded and shrugged. "Not too worried about it this year. Acnologia's dead, Zeref's been beat." She leaned forward off of Gajeel's back. "We disbanded all the Dark Guilds. All that's left is just a bit of fun. I don't think Hisui is going to allow for anything less, to be honest, it sounds like she just wanted this to be a fun summer competition. I mean, one of the games has something to do with a discus. A discus!"

"We'll have to see," she said. "But I'm looking forward to it. Has Erza laid out her strategy for you guys yet?" She raised her voice for Lucy and Gajeel.

"Wouldn't know," Gajeel said, crossing his arms. "I'm in reserves."

A sharp, somewhat drunken cackle filled the courtyard and another arm, this one much more slender, found its way around Lucy's shoulder and skimmed the top of her chest accidentally. A hand with a flagon then came over her other shoulder and a brunette with ale-stained breath leaned against Lucy's back.

"Damn right, Dragon boy," Cana said, her breath hot against Lucy's ear. Lucy wanted to squirm but Cana held her tight, as if they were in some sort of headlock. "My main squeeze Lucy and I are gonna rip up the competition this year!"

"Yeah, only if that Bacchus guy has another drinking contest," Levy said.

Cana squeezed her flagon tight. "That bastard couldn't drink even if it was shoved down his throat, he don't know anything about drinking with a real man!"

"Woman," Lucy said. "You're a woman."

Cana wrapped her arms around Lucy. "I ain't a woman like you, not with these honkers!"

Lucy shoved Cana off but she just laughed it off. Lucy couldn't help but pretend to smile as well and looked over her shoulder at Cana, who bowed to Lucy. She wore a dark blue dress that was loose-fitted and flirted with the ground at every step. Like most of the girls from Fairy Tail, she also had flats on. Heels were a pain, especially on the cobblestone of the courtyard and the rest of Crocus.

"Oh," Lucy said, taking her mind off Cana for a moment, "I saw Lamia Scale got here already, Wendy and Carla should be around here."

Levy's face lit up with a bit more excitement as well. "Oh, great! I hope they're not too nervous about competing against us this year."

"Who, Wendy?" Gajeel asked. "Only if she has to fight me. That little kid's got more strength than anyone gives her credit for, she'll do fine."

Lucy nodded. Due to low participation excitement on Lamia Scale's part, and so Fairy Tail didn't have three, potentially four, Dragon Slayers on one team, Wendy and Carla had been asked to temporarily rejoin Lamia Scale as they had before the Alvarrez War. Laxus had been approached, along with the Thunder Tribe, to rejoin Blue Pegasus, but Laxus wouldn't go for it. He didn't even want to participate in the games at all, but looked forward to attending. He claimed there wasn't any good competition for him, despite the fact that he could've competed against the likes of Natsu, Sting, Rogue, Gajeel, Wendy, Erza, Bacchus...

The list rolled on in her head at just how many powerful wizards would be there, but it warmed her heart a bit to think that she was friends with basically all of them. They'd all fought together to save Ishgar, all banded together to defeat Acnologia. There was no bad blood between any of them.

Though, the devil was in the details. Another caravan came racing around the corner, startling everyone. Romeo and Macao almost got hit by it before they were pulled out of the way by Elfman at the last minute, who yelled at the terrified driver. This caravan, only two carts, had an insignia with an emblem Lucy didn't recognize. She glowered at it, but Levy held her arm out and pulled Lucy close, then started walking.

"Come on, Lu," Levy muttered. "Let's get outta here."

"You know those guys?" Lucy asked.

Levy nodded. "Unfortunately I do, they're a combination guild, one that apparently came together for the sole purpose of upsetting us at the games. Orochi's Twilight, a mix of Orochi's Fin, Twilight Ogre, and a few other guilds that claim to have been beaten up and abused by Fairy Tail in the past, but it's full of a bunch of sleazes."

They stepped through the entryway to the castle, but all Lucy could feel was a little fire growing in her belly. She grinned and clasped Levy on the shoulder. "Good. That kind of competition makes for a great show, don't you think?"

* * *

 **Fairy Tail has arrived in Crocus and nobody's in trouble or dying, hooray! Next time, we'll catch up with the other big participants, like Sabertooth, and get the rundown on this new version of the Grand Magic Games. Plus, there may be a surprise guild that shows up to participate. It is celebrating ALL the Dragon Slayers, after all...**

 **Hope you all enjoyed this little introduction. If you liked it and want to check out other _Fairy Tail_ stories I've done, look out for my other fic _Fairy Tail - New Era,_ which is currently at it's like 86th chapter or something. I don't know, I like it, others like it, it's cool, I think you'd like it, too. **

**There's no set schedule for this to come out (probably more of a "I'm in the mood for writing this story" type of thing) but you can probably expect it once a week or so, just not any particular day of the week.**

 **Also, I want to make this a little interactive: I have the events and competitions set up in my mind, but, I don't have the one-on-one battles set up yet. If you have any battles that you want to see, let me know in a review or a PM! I'm more open to the fights we didn't get to see in the anime/ manga (like, Lyon vs. Kagura, or Wendy vs. Ichiya). Obviously you'll get more ideas as we find out who specifically is involved. I have a great idea for what to do for an opening fight (think what _Dragon Ball Super_ 's manga did before the Tournament of Power and you might get a good idea of it), and I think you'll all enjoy it too. **

**GRAND MAGIC GAMES HYPE! :D**


	2. Chapter 1 - Dinner Darlings

Delicate, fine silverware and plates danced around Lucy in a flourish of shine, beauty, and money as the well-dressed waiters and waitressed moved with professional and memorized ease through Castle Fiore's Great Hall. She followed one cute looking young man with her eyes as he darted through the various well-dressed wizards (save for Quattro Cerberus, Natsu, Gajeel, Gildarts, and a few scoundrels from Orochi's Twilight) until he vanished behind the kitchen doors. Her eyes then fell to Natsu, who sat happily at a table with Rogue, Gajeel, Gray, and Juvia. Happy and Frosch were doing a little dance in tune with the music; Frosch had never seemed happier.

Minerva's bellowing laugh stunned her from her glance and she returned her attention to the table. Minerva sat next to Lucy in a fine blue gown, revealing everything she wanted to but ensuring that her tight, powerful muscles reminded everyone she was not a woman to be messed with. She had a champagne glass in hand. Tables were all circular, and by the time Sabertooth joined the dinner, there had only been two seats left. Lucy happily gave them away to Minerva and their good friend Yukino Agria, who sat opposite Lucy. Rounding out the table were Erza, Kagura, and, Sherry Blendy, who'd taken the trip with Lamia Scale in support of her sister.

Erza set down her glass that magically refilled with wine. "Quite the story, Minerva. I had no idea that the tailor in Onibas was such a big fan of yours."

"Once these games are done we'll have to go together, Erza," Minerva said. Lucy stared at the elite Sabertooth wizard. She no longer saw a face of vile and villainy, but rather a woman of heart and power. She wore loads of makeup but Lucy still saw her beauty even when she'd become part-Demon. Minerva's eyes drifted from their table, as Lucy's had, toward table with the Exceeds dancing and stayed there a moment.

"Oh, that reminds me," Yukino said, folding her hands on the table. "Lucy, I read through your book. I quite liked it a lot. I wanted to give it to Sting to read, but he's been so busy preparing the guild for the games."

"Not to mention reading isn't his specialty," Minerva said, her eyes still away. They filled with a bit of gloss and her voice softened as she spoke, "Rogue, though, would definitely read through it. In a heartbeat."

"Did _you_ just skip a heartbeat, Minerva?" Erza asked, cheekily taking another drink.

Minerva grinned and calmly turned her head to the scarlet warrior. "It may have, but I did not swoon as you would if you'd seen that man Jellal."

Erza grinned and squeezed her cup almost to the point of breaking. Cracks formed all along it. Lucy couldn't help herself but burst into a fit of laughter at the sight.

"My, my," Sherry said from behind her own glass of wine. "You girls and your boys. Whatever are we to do?"

Kagura had her sword resting against the table, sheathed as always. Her eyes wandered for a moment. "Speaking of Jellal, isn't he—"

"Lucy!" a voice boomed, and Lucy rolled her eyes, leaning back to look over to Natsu's table. Rogue, embarassed, had his hands in his face while Natsu giggled and showed a small black flame being tossed around with ease by Happy and Frosch. "Check it out!"

"They worry me," Erza said.

"They worry everyone," Lucy said, and gestured to the Master's Table.

Everyone followed her gesture. All the Guild Masters sat there, with notable abscenses from Mermaid Heel and Orochi's Twilight. Scores of Guild Masters huddled together, basically one from each guild. Makarov would've been difficult to spot had it not been for his large arm stretching up over the crowd, then down and slapping Natsu on the side of the head. Another loud voice boomed in laughter, and Lucy saw Sting sitting there next to Makarov. Weird to see him at the Master's table, especially among others like Bob from Blue Pegasus or that old hag from Lamia Scale.

Lucy felt a little chill when she thought of her, and lowered her gaze a bit.

"I'm amazed how they could fit so many people in here," Minerva said.

"They could fit all the participants," Erza clarified.

Kagura raised an eyebrow. "I see most if not all of Fairy Tail here, Erza, I'm not sure what you mean."

"And I'm literally sitting right here," Sherry said.

Erza put her hands up in defense. "Hisui's personal invitation allowed us to all come to the dinner. I don't want to gloat-"

"Though you should," Minerva said, and Kagura and Sherry noticeably nodded. "It was Fairy Tail's greatest spell that defeated Acnologia and one of Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayers that that cemented this defeat, as well as destroying Zeref."

"Fairy Tail led the resistance against Alvarrez, something none of us could have done on our own as you did," Sherry said. "Have pride in Fairy Tail."

"I have the greatest pride in my guild, but until this competition is over, I won't hold it above anyone else's," Erza said. "It would be unbefitting of me, as our team Captain."

Kagura and Minerva grinned. "Ah, so my suspicions were correct," Minerva said. "Rogue had been guessing that Natsu would be your team captain."

"I won't reveal my team's roster just yet," Erza said. "But yes, I am leading the team."

"I think we can guess one of your members right now?" Minerva said, side-eyeying Lucy. The blonde sat up a bit taller.

"I won't speak until the captain says so," Lucy said, and Minerva chuckled again.

"Very good, Lucy," Minerva said. "But so long as we are sharing such details I would be remiss in mentioning that I am the Captain for Saber Tooth."

"And I Mermaid Heel," Kagura said. "Knowing all of this I consider it a great honor to have been elected by my guild and to stand in such elite company."

"Indeed," Erza said.

Sherry giggled and leaned back. "You're all so cordial amongst each other." She wore a scandalous pink dress, but it wasn't as if anyone would make mention of it. Almost anything she wore would appear that way, even if it weren't intended. Sherry Blendy was well-regarded as one of the most beautiful women in Fiore, rivalling Mirajane and Jenny Realight.

"We're saving it for the battlefield," Yukino said. "Besides, why fight now?"

"For real," Lucy said. "I already feel much better about these Games than any before. The vibe here is so, I don't know, relaxed? Calm?"

"There's no Eclipse Gates, no Zeref, no dragons," Erza said. "It's friendly competition. I'll be honest, in all that's happened these last two or three years, I'd nearly forgotten what it was like."

The kitchen doors opened in a flourish and all the waiters and waitresses poured out of it with trays of hot food in their hands or on various carts. Several annoying and distinguishable roars of hungry men swelled in the room while all the women at Lucy's table smiled at the sight of food. After a long day on the road, this was quite the welcomed meal.

The staff distributed quick and cordially, but before anyone could dig in-even Natsu-Hisui rose and tapped her golden glass, signaling for everyone's attention. She sat on a raised platform, with the Guild Master's long table just in front of it, forming a "T" in the back of the Grand Hall by the throne. Hisui was adorned in her typical outfit: the slim white dress and cloak with her silver crown and jade jewel atop her head. She looked splendid, and even among the massive crowd, large and authoritative.

"Good evening," she said, her voice a song over the sudden hush of the dining hall. The tinkling of forks upon the plates sounded as everyone's attention fully fell upon their queen. "And thank you for coming, my friends. It's been a year of peace and joy, and of rebuilding. Our homes were destroyed, our lives changed, but our friendships and bonds remained. We remained true to ourselves, and to the hope we have in each other. While we're not quite done yet, I felt it important that we show the kingdom that those who stood before the darkness can shed a little more light to mark the one-year passing of Fiore's greatest threat."

Everyone clapped for her, a few people hollered for her. Most of the drunkards weren't there—save for Cana who sat at a table with the Strauss family and her father. Lucy's eyes wandered again. She saw Wendy, Sherria, Carla, Gray, Juvia, and Lyon sitting together. Laxus and the Thunder Legion sat close, but not far, from Makarov, and were joined by Orga and Jura Neekis, who was not participating—thank goodness—but was there as a supervisor for the Magic Council.

Hisui went to speak again but finally noticed, along with everyone else, the creaking of the doors at the back of the hall. Feet and chairs scuttled against the ground to turn and see the participants, and Guild Master, of Crime Sorciere, all dressed up and ready for some food. Lucy couldn't help but feel a twinge of fear at the villains-turned-heroes. Jellal led them, of course, wearing a long blue robe that hid the tuxedo beneath. Meldy was in a flowing pink dress that hid her massive bust impressively well, and also wore the blue cloak that Jellal did.

Cobra was with Kinana, of course, and while she had a dainty light blue dress, he had a deep purple suit with a green tie to match her. His one good eye wandered around and Lucy could see the beads of sweat dripping down his face. Sorano wore something similar to Yukino, though a bit less modest because that was how Sorano rolled. Macbeth, Racer, and Hoteye had similar garb to what they wore, just with a bit more flourish.

"Sorry for the late arrival," Jellal said, his voice filling the entire arena. "Couldn't find a place for the carriage, apparently there's a tournament going on."  
It garnered a few chuckles—and a hearty laugh from Erza. Jellal nodded to Meldy who happily guided the rest of the guild to the remaining open table, where their food awaited them. Jellal glided through the crowd, and everyone watched him the entire time. Lucy only did so out of reverence that he could show up, late, to a royal dinner and have no worry or face to show for it. Hisui just smiled down at him as he took up his seat next to Bob, who grinned at him and said something. Jellal just nodded.

Erza, of course, hadn't taken her eyes off of him, and visibly jolted when Hisui called for the attention once more.

"Good, then we're all here now," she said, nodding her head to Crime Sorciere settling in at the back. "I'm glad to see all of your faces once again, or for the very first time. This past year, as I'm sure it's been for all of us, has been that of struggle and rebuilding. Perhaps a guild was lost or a loved one was taken from us by our foes, but know this: their strength, and the strength we all share, has come to bring us to today and propel us into the future. No matter the darkness, or the odds, or that feeling of loneliness, we are truly never alone. There is love unbound in this world now that it's great darkness has been thwarted, and for that, you all have my sincerest applause." As Hisui bowed low to all the wizards, Arcadios, Darton, and the other Fiore Knights around, like Riana from the White Tiger force that defended the Dragon Cry staff years ago.

Hisui continued, "The Grand Magic Games, once known as the Dragon King Festival, have stood as a symbol of unity for our kingdom for so long. Once, long ago, it brought together dragons, humans, and even demons alike; until recently, the games garnered a popular and warm reception. Unfortunately, this was changed, and now we know why truly this time of the year was known as the Dragon _King_ Festival." Hisui closed her eyes, exhaled, but all the worry washed free from her face. "Henceforth, it has been decided to honor those brave Dragons and Dragon Slayers that fought against the forces of Face and Acnologia, the Dragon King, and rename the Grand Magic Games and Dragon King Festival into, simply, the Dragon Festival."

More applause all around, though Lucy looked and saw all the Dragon Slayers, save for Natsu who just looked a bit perplexed at the situation, blushing and trying to hide their faces. Even Cobra could barely keep his scowl from turning into a smile, but Kinana encouraged him regardless, trying to draw that grin out.

"The Games proper shall begin tomorrow, but more on that later," Hisui said. "For now, please, enjoy this meal and this time of gathering and friendship. All we ask is that you do not wander the halls without permission or an escort." She nodded and moved to sit back down, then stopped, stood, and looked to all the Fairy Tail tables and said, "No, it's not another of your little conspiracies." She looked directly at Natsu. "And no, Natsu, you may _not_ go looking for the Mato outfit."

The hall burst into laughter again, with Gajeel's roaring laughter breaking out among the rest, as Natsu just shrugged and started going at his food. Happy started digging into some fish and Frosch, Lucy, watched, couldn't decide if part of Rogue's plate or Happy's fish looked more delectable. Lector, at Sting's table, had his own little set of food set up next to Sting. Lucy would've worried that the Guild Master on that side of Sting would be angered, but seeing as it was Master Bob from Blue Pegasus, Lucy worried more for a handsome man like Sting than anything else.

She clapped her hands together, said her thanks, and started into the food, her body instinctually kicking into her more lady-like tendencies. Erza was the same way, though Lucy could tell she strained to not just jab the chicken with a sword and shove it down her gullet.

"My, Lucy," Minerva said next to her, tenderly sliding a piece of broccoli into her mouth. "I'd have thought your time with Natsu would have made a bit more vicious with food."

Lucy actively heard Natsu's snarls and growls as he ate his food down the Great Hall. She sighed. "Sixteen years of hard etiquette has to get a girl somewhere, right?"

"Pardon me for asking, but, aren't you supposed to be on a Century Quest, Lucy?" Yukino asked, still cutting up her food.

Lucy nodded. "We'd only gotten a day away from Fiore before Makarov called us back for the invitation. Crazy how that worked out."

"We'll be leaving once the Games are over, likely heading out from here," Erza said.

"What's the quest?" Sherry asked.

Erza grinned. "It's not my quest to speak of."

"It's Natsu's," Lucy said. "He invited me, Erza, Gray, Wendy, and Carla. Juvia will probably hitch a ride with us, she can't stay away from Gray for more than six hours."

"An oddly specific number," Kagura said from behind her wine glass.

"It's how long she sleeps," Lucy said, and Yukino almost spat up her drink from laughter. A bit of it trickled through her fingers.

"So sorry," Yukino said. "I just don't see how someone can be so obsessed with another person."

"It's quite perplexing," Minerva said. "Say, Erza, doesn't Jellal look quite handsome tonight?"

Lucy almost reciprocated Yukino's actions but managed to keep her composure. If Erza saw her do or say anything, Fairy Tail would likely need another participant on their team. Erza's face turned the color of her hair, which cascaded down just a bit to cover one eye. She cleared her throat.

"As a Guild Master he should be dressed appropriately for the occasion, so yes, he should look quite handsome as well," Erza said. "Though I thought Rogue looked particularly dashing tonight, I've never seen him so relaxed and in-the-moment."

"I think I shall take the credit there, I've been actively trying to get him to open up a bit more," Minerva said.

Man, talk about humble, Lucy thought as she started to eat her own food. Yukino nodded from across the table.

"Indeed," Yukino said. "It's quite impressive."

"Perhaps we'll have you do a crash course on proper social interaction with Natsu, then," Erza said. "Levy seems to have wrangled Gajeel pretty well."

Sherry slid forward a bit, leaning in as if to whisper, "Is it true what they say?"

"Who is _they_?" Lucy asked.

Sherry grinned. "That Gajeel and Levy are trying to have a kid?"

"Absurd," Erza said but did so much too fast. Sherry grinned, content with the answer she got. Kagura remained silent, but observant eyes smiled back at all the others. She was just soaking all of this up, wasn't she?

The women finished all of their meals, but rather than get up and mingle like everyone else, a lot of people actually came around to their table. Lucy spotted Flare in the crowd mingling about with some of the other Mermaid Heel girls, but before she could ask a stupid question, recalled that Flare, indeed, joined up with Mermaid Heel after the Alvarez War. The two made eye contact and smiled at one another.

The Guild Masters remained, for the most part, at their table, but with two noticeable departures: Sting and Jellal. Lucy's eyes followed Sting, who had Lector atop his shoulder, to Natsu and Rogue's table, where he burst into chatter with Natsu, who, Lucy could tell, was upset that he wasn't going to get to fight Sting since Sting was a Guild Master was thus disqualified from participation in the main event.

When she tried to find Jellal she felt someone kick the table and a masculine, calm voice said, "Good evening, friends, it's so great to see you all."

Lucy swiveled her head back around to see Jellal standing between Erza and Kagura. He grinned at everyone and rested one hand on Erza's chair and then another momentarily on Kagura's shoulder. He squeezed and she patted his hand, grinning up at him and saying hello. Jellal removed his hand. Erza's face, still red, kept the smile on Lucy's face.

She realized nobody had said anything back, "Good to see you too, Jellal. How's everything been for you guys?"

"We just got off a mission near Bosco hunting down a few Dark Wizards kidnapping young women," Jellal said, and cast a dark glance to the table with Orochi's Twilight. "That man Bora used to be among that crowd."

Lucy rolled her eyes. Bora had been that hack Fire Wizard that tried to kidnap Lucy the first time she met Natsu all those years ago. He was part of the Revenge Squad—just another name for Orochi's Twilight, a guild specifically designed for taking down Fairy Tail. Unlikely, but, it would be cute to watch.

"Will you try and bring him in?" Minerva asked, swishing around the wine in her glass. Their bottle was nearly empty. Damn. Lucy looked to her own glass and saw it was hardly drunk of. She frowned.

"Not unless he tries something, which would be foolish," Jellal said. "I'm sure Natsu would like another crack at him."

"How do you know about that?" Lucy asked.

"My time as Seigrain helped me learn a lot of things, Lucy, one of which being the destruction of Hargeon Town on multiple occasions," Jellal said. Erza's face turned even redder. "Fairy Tail wasn't, and isn't, known for its subtleties."

"Subtlety wouldn't have beaten Alvarez," Sherry said. "So I'm thankful for it."

"Oh, I agree," Jellal said. "Isn't that right, Erza? I heard you destroyed a meteor hurtling toward the Earth, and even slew a Dragon."  
Erza nodded and finally looked to Jellal. Lucy could see the spark in their eyes when their gazes connected. It was actually a little off-putting.

"Indeed, such things are true, but I was not the one who attacked Acnologia head-on," Erza said.

Minerva sighed and leaned down so only Lucy could hear, "You think their egos are as big and obvious as their love?"  
Lucy chuckled. "Probably bigger."  
"Lucy," Erza cut in, and the blonde froze, "Why don't you escort Jellal to help bring over the desserts?"

Jellal nodded to her and Lucy finally stood. Jellal held his arm out and Lucy slid her arm through his, and he guided her through the Great Hall. She felt the eyes drawn upon her. She looked to Master Makarov, who winked at her, but she just shook his head. He shrugged and continued his conversation with Ooba, who spun her plates incessantly.

"Are you excited for this year's festival?" Jellal asked. "Oh, where are my manners, I'm not even sure you're participating."

"I am," Lucy said. "Erza's our captain." She paused. "Probably shouldn't have told you that."

"The Captains are fairly obvious to discern," Jellal said.

Lucy shook her head. "Not from Crime Sorciere. It's anyone's guess, really."

Jellal patted Lucy's arm. "Right now we're just Sorciere so not to cause any public outcry. We've managed to keep a low-enough profile that nobody would know the difference. Everyone's been caught up in the rebuilding since Alvarez."

"Oh, good point, my bad," Lucy said. "Thank you, though."

"For what?"

They reached the desserts table and the chefs nodded to them. Elfman and Evergreen were just down the table, cutely bickering with one another, while Ren was with Hibiki and Riko deliberating over what girls to bring which desserts. Lucy found a strawberry cake with red frosting on it—colored specifically with Erza's scarlet hair color—and took a large chunk and placed it on a plate.

"Facing Acnologia like you did," Lucy said. "You were the only one brave enough to do so."

"Except it was you who came up with the idea for Fairy Sphere," Jellal said.

Lucy shrugged and handed Jellal the plate. "Here, gives this to Erza. She'll really appreciate it."

Jellal didn't even stutter. "Thank you, Lucy."

Lucy nodded to him and folded her hands together and watched him glide through the crowd back to Erza. Her heart warmed a little as an expression of genuine shock and happiness overcame Erza's face. Jellal stood by them and chatted for a little while Lucy oversaw the crowd.

There wasn't a bored expression in the house whatsoever. Everyone was smiling, talking, laughing; it was joy, true joy. After all that they'd been through, the hardships and battles and heartache, Lucy couldn't help but feel a small tear spring to her eye. She wiped it away quickly and swallowed the knot in her throat. With a beaming grin and a touch of her keys, she started her way back through the crowd.

Hisui tapped on her glass again about an hour or so later. Lucy didn't speak with very many others; Wendy and Carla came around to their table for a little chat, then Natsu asked her a weird question—but it was kind of cute the way he asked, Lucy found herself thinking—and finally Makarov paid Lucy and Erza a small visit, and made sure to make good with the beautiful ladies of the table. Everyone noted what a nice Guild Master he was, and Lucy knew the shared pride between herself and Erza was well earned.

Hisui cleared her throat and silenced the crowd again. "I trust dinner and dessert were to everyone's liking."  
She didn't pose it as a question, but somewhere in the Great Hall, Natsu exclaimed, "Hell yeah!"

Hisui nodded. "Thank you, Natsu, truly appreciated." She smiled in his direction and blew him a little kiss. Lucy felt a twinge of something—jealousy?—in her gut before Hisui addressed the crowd again. "As I said at the beginning of the evening, the festival proper begins tomorrow. For those of you who are not participating, several of the city's businesses and vendors will have festivities and music available for your enjoyment between rounds. Those wishing to get seats to the stadium will be asked to get there early and please refrain from taking up more room than necessary; after some renovations were done a year ago due to a melting incident, we've been working on proper seating arrangements.

"For our participants, though, I hereby cordially welcome you to the Dragon Festival! Tomorrow at ten in the morning all participating guilds are to be waiting on the roofs of their respective hostels or bases for our preliminary event."

She held her hands out and a holo-lacrima floated down from the ceiling and then lit up, revealing a familiar image to Lucy and all others who participated in the games two years ago.

"The Sky Labyrinth," Hisui said, and the room erupted in whispers.

"I always love a bit of familiarity," Minerva muttered to Lucy.

"The rules of the Labyrinth are simple," Hisui said. "Make it through the end and arrive in the stadium proper for the next event. The first eight guilds to arrive will move on through the preliminary rounds, and all other participating guilds will, unfortunately, be disqualified. If at any point a single Guild Member is to fall and drop out, their Reserve member may jump in to redeem that Guild Member from disqualification from the tournament. Magic is allowed, as is combat, but, obviously, refrain from lethal force. Any lethal force wrought upon another will be met with immediate expulsion from Crocus, and a nice cell beneath Era."

"It sucks," Cobra said, accidentally a bit too loud. It didn't garner that many laughs save for most of the Fairy Tail wizards in the hall, and Doranbolt, who stood cordially and patiently behind Hisui.

Hisui grinned. "A few reminders for out-of-game activities: curfew for all participating wizards is midnight. Sharp. Fairy Tail that includes you." She locked eyes with Lucy for a moment. "The castle is strictly off limits, and any damage done to any parts of the city not within the stadium grounds or a part of the games' area of the city will be deducted from the guilds. I'm sure the kind folk in front of me would rather you don't do that."

The Guild Masters, Lucy hoped, were supposed to laugh, but instead, they all glowered at their respective wizards. Lucy didn't dare meet eyes with Makarov.

"And above all else, have fun," Hisui said. "This Grand Magic Games is meant to represent to the rest of Ishgar that Fiore will only grow stronger as time goes forward. We can all come together as a wizarding community and prove our loyalty and friendship to one another through the great spirit of competition. I believe we will all come out the stronger, and the better, for it." Hisui smiled and nodded to Doranbolt, who stepped forward, revealing a case from behind his back. "But of course what is a competition without a prize? Alongside the title of Fiore's Strongest Guild, the winner shall receive a sum of thirty million crown jewel alongside this…"

She stepped aside and Doranbolt opened the case. Everyone gasped, but nothing but memories flooded back to Lucy as she stared at the gorgeous crystal in the case. She and Erza glanced at one another and grinned.

"Granted to us graciously from Queen Sonya of Stella, the winning guild shall receive five pounds of the precious and rare Stellanium crystal," Hisui said. "Priceless in value and the most beautiful gem in Ishgar."

Doranbolt closed the case up and sealed it magically. He remained standing there. "And it's off limits to any thieves. Go ahead and try. Jellal and I have thought up a few ways we could track you down, don't you worry."

Hisui chuckled. Doranbolt stepped back and Hisui took center stage again. "And that is all I have for you, my friends. Go forth, now, and prepare yourselves for tomorrow. I suggest you get a good night's rest; personally, I find the night before the games a most restless affair."

She clapped her hands and candles lit up all around the room, igniting the place in light and signaling everyone to leave. The humdrum of conversation burst up, along with the scraping of chairs and scuttling of feet along the ground.

Lucy rose and saw a hand jutted out before her, with a bit of ethernano floating around it. She traced it back to Minerva, who wore a determined smile upon her face.

"As of this point we are now opponents, Lucy Heartfilia," Minerva said. "May the best witch win."  
"She will," Lucy said, and summoned a bit of ethernano to her own hand and clasped Minerva's hand. A small spark lit in their hands.

Lucy walked with Erza out of the Great Hall but was quickly met by Natsu. Gray came rushing up next to him. Natsu and Gray made icy-hot fist contact. Cana, holding two bottles of wine, sauntered up to them. She wrapped an arm around Lucy, but Lucy also wrapped an arm around her. Gajeel joined them as well, knocking Natsu upside the head and standing next to Erza.

Lucy, Natsu, Gray, Cana, Erza, and Gajeel all stepped free of the castle, and as they did, Natsu held up the Fairy Tail hand symbol and roared, "Look our Fiore, Fairy Tail's coming at ya! I'm all fired up now!"

* * *

 **Yes indeed, Team Fairy Tail is assembled and raring to go! Don't worry, we'll be getting into the reasons why wizards like Mira, Elfman, Laxus, or Juvia weren't chosen for the team soon enough. But next time, though, the games BEGIN! I'm so excited to see how it'll play out, this is going to be a really fun story to write and I hope you all have fun reading. I'm having a blast just putting these amazing characters in a room and having them interact with one another.**

 **Remember, if you have any suggestions for one-on-one battles you'd like to see, send them my way in a review or PM and I'll see if I can make it happen (just keep in mind that Sting, Jellal, and the aforementiond Fairy Tail Wizards can't be fighting in the tournament). I've already got two battles set up in mind for later in the tournament, and I think you'll really like them.**

 **So yeah, next time, the tournament begins!**

 **Oh, and if you liked this story, please check out my other _Fairy Tail_ fic: _Fairy Tail - New Era_. We're closing in on the end of it's sixth arc, so we'll have a break soon and you can get all caught up before Arc VII begins! **


	3. Chapter 2 - Sky Labyrinth Pt 1

Lucy stretched her arms out and let out an accidental groan. She exhaled when she relaxed her body, letting the tension release and try and remove the jitters sending some tremors throughout her body. The rising sun kissed her smooth skin and a light breeze tugged at her twin-tail hair. She rested one hand on her hip and felt the magical leather of her Celestial whip at her side, and when she shifted, the jingling of her Celestial keys tinkled in the dwindling dawn-light. She reached to the necklace she had and lightly touched the broken Aquarius key with a grin.

Next to her, Erza stepped forward, gazing out at the rest of the Crocus as the sun continued to make its rise. Natsu yawned and Gray cracked his knuckles. From behind someone rested a warm but reassuraning hand on Lucy's shoulder, and Lucy turned to Cana. She reached up and squeezed Cana's hand, then their hands slipped down and remained connected. Cana held Lucy's hand tight.

"You know, Lucy, you've really got a way of making me feel just, like, good," Cana said. "Really appreciate that."

"Thanks, Cana," Lucy said. She saw a sliver of doubt cross over on Cana's face, but Lucy squeezed Cana's hand and said, "You're going to do great. What Master said about you is true and then some; you deserve to be on this team, S-Class or not."

Cana nodded and held their hands up. "We'll take everyone down together, right?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Lucy said, and then they clasped their hands together and nodded to one another.

Erza held her hand out and a sword appeared in it. Above them, in the center of town, the Sky Labyrinth began to form. All the other guilds stood atop their bases or the various parts of town, awaiting the descending bridge to grant them access. The stadium, Domus Flau, was already packed with people; Lucy could somewhat hear the crwod from there, as well as the resonating voices of the two commentators, but couldn't pinpoint who exactly the commentary team was for this competition.

Lucy stole a look behind them, where Gajeel stood in the Reserves square, arms crossed and concentration focused upon the forming maze.

She and Erza shared one last glance. Erza nodded to Lucy, who just quickly clenched her fist to relieve some more tension in her body. Lamia Scale stood not far from them, and Wendy and Carla looked locked in as ever, even though Wendy was also in the Reserve square while Carla, in her human form, stood next to Shellia. Lyon had his arms crossed, focused on the labyrinth.

"Competition sure ain't gonna be easy this time," Natsu said, moving to stand next to Lucy. He stretched his arms out a little more and while he revolved his wrist he let flames roll around his fingers. "Can't beleive they wouldn't let Jura compete, though. Wanted to get a shot against him."

"Jura's here as part of his duties with the Magic Council," Erza said. "As a representative. It wouldn't be right for a council member to take part of the games proper."

"Proper?" Gray asked.

Erza looked away from them, letting her hair hide part of her expression. "Indeed, the games proper."

"Are the games not proper?" Natsu asked.

"She's being coy," Cana said. "Something she probably picked up after a night with Jellal."

Erza scowled at her team and they all stepped back with a shiver running down their spine. "I was with you all last night, remember? We'll not speak of our opponent until the games are done."

"Man, she is taking this captain thing real serious," Cana muttered. Lucy nodded.

Titania wore her Captain's lapel over her armor. They hadn't been given their uniforms yet-something Lucy dearly looked forward to since last time their uniforms were amazing-but Erza had been given the honor of designating herself as the Team Captain, which was only right. It'd never been a doubt in anyone's mind who would be the captain, moreover who specifically would be a part of the team:

* * *

 _"Queen Hisui has personally invited the Fairy Tail guild to participate in the next round of Grand Magic Games," Master Makarov had said after those on the Century Quest had been called back. "Mirajane and I have been discussing the best possible candidates for who should represent our guild, and who would work best in terms of the team aspect. Normally this would be no question, as many of you have created your own teams. But, as things are, we've decided to lend support to some of our neighboring guilds; this year the games are competitive but are being done in the spirit of unity, so Wendy and Carla have volunteered themselves to rejoin Team Lamia Scale for the time being."_

 _A low murmur rushed through the crowd, followed by the devastated cries of one blue Exceed. Lucy, sitting next to Wendy, just smiled to the young Dragon Slayer and said, "You'll do great."_

 _"Thanks, I was pretty nervous for Master to make the announcement," Wendy said. "I hope we don't have to fight each other, Lucy, I wouldn't know what to do!" She started getting up, and Lucy couldn't help raise her eyebrow in response._

 _"I shall now as Wendy and Carla to leave the room as I announce our roster," Master said, and Lucy sat up immediately. They had a roster already? That was fast._

 _Wendy and Carla skirted out of the room, Happy almost following but Natsu catching him by the tail and letting him wallow next to a comforting Panther Lily. Master cleared his throat and Mirajane stepped aside on stage to let him take all the focus. He stood for a singular, but dreadfully long, moment before raising his voice again and declaring,_

 _"This year each guild's team will have a Captain that represents the leadership, commitment, and level of heart for the team. For our team captain, we've decided to elect Erza."_

 _An eruption of cheers immediately followed her name. Erza took a moment to stand, but when she did, everyone stood with her and joyfully clapped and then chanted, "Titania!" as she approached the stage. She bowed before Master, then stood, hands folded, behind him. She looked proud as ever._

 _"The remaining roster comprises of five additional members: four main participants and one reserve member. For our reserve member, and after long discussion with some of you-" His gaze darted in the direction of Laxus, then Levy. "We've decided to select Gajeel."_

 _Levy screamed his name the loudest and everyone else clapped. Gajeel stood, a bit confused for a moment, but approached the stage nonetheless. Makarov shook his hand and Gajeel took his place next to Erza. It was an odd sight, but what worried Lucy more was that, besides herself and Mirajane, those were the two most competent stage performers in the guild. She could only hope they didn't need to perform anything for Hisui at the coming games._

 _"Next, we decided we needed a main roster member who can keep a level head in competition, but also has an eye for creativity and thinking outside the box. As such, there was no better choice than Gray."_

 _This time, Juvia almost flooded the room with her shouts and accidental release of water magic. A massive water-heart formed over where she and Gray were sitting. Gray stood, cooly, and sauntered up to the stage, nodding to Makarov and clasping hands with Erza, forcing Juvia to simmer just a bit._

 _Makarov cleared his throat and Lucy spotted a few beads of sweat form atop his head. "Mirajane also discussed that while Erza contains the courage and heart of the team, we needed someone who has the raw passion that Fairy Tail embodies, someone who..." Makarov shook his head. "Ah, forget it, we need someone who can wreck house. Natsu, get up here."_

 _Natsu roared loudest this time, sending a cloud of steam through the guild hall as the fire spewing from his mouth crashed with the water heart. There were nominal amounts of cheers, not nearly as much as Erza. Natsu proudly rushed up to the stage and gave everyone the Fairy Tail salute. Makarov muttered what was probably a silent prayer before composing himself._

 _"But strength, intelligence, and heart are not enough to win a competition; we needed someone else with the versatility that Fairy Tail has. We are a guild of many wizards, and of many gifts. There is no wizard with a more versatile array of abilities than our next teammate, Lucy."_

 _Lucy, surprisingly, got the biggest uproar thus far. She didn't move, her body kept her frozen in place. She looked to the others in the room, to Laxus, Mirajane, Gildarts, Levy, the Thunder Legion, Elfman. So many other wizards that could've been chosen, but, it was she? Natsu's voice sliced through the crowd and drew her to her feet._

 _"Lucy, get up here!" He held his hand out and had a big smile upon his face. Lucy wiped away the tears and rushed up to the stage. She took Erza's hand and held their hands up. She stood, proud, beneath the bright lights of the stage, beaming at those who had become her family. A sudden overwhemling feeling came to her: she represented all of them. Last time there had been two teams to show off all that Fairy Tail was; this time, there was just the one, and she was one of them._

 _"And finally, our final member, and possibly our most important," Makarov said. "As became apparent during our battles with Acnologia, we all embody the spirit and magic that First Master Mavis granted to us in both this world and the next. We required a member who could physically display the power of Fairy Tail, one that has mastered and honed the art of one of our sacred spells, but also someone whose magic is unpredictable and impossibly versatile and has come in handy in more places than one in our recent past. Our final member of Team Fairy Tail is Cana!"_

 _Lucy's eyes immediately fell upon the brunette who had been in the middle of a drink, and slowly lowered it. Lucy watched, in real time, as realization dawned on her. Gildarts cried out her name in praise, and possibly with some tears, and everyone, literally everyone, clapped for her or cheered her name. Cana set her drink down on the table and approached the stage. Natsu gave her a high-five but Lucy wrapped her up in a hug._

 _"I can't believe it," Cana said._

 _"I can," Lucy said, and squeezed tighter._

 _Cana stepped aside Lucy, and all six members faced their guild. Mirajane rejoined Makarov on stage. "I'm sure some of you are wondering why a few of our other members aren't joining our team, and it has nothing to do with the value of this team. Honestly I can't think of a more complete group of wonderful individuals to send."_

 _"But Gildarts is lazy," Makarov grumbled, sending a wave of chuckles through the crowd._

 _"But what about Laxus?" Freed cried out._

 _Lucy couldn't see it, but was certain Makarov was smiling when he said, "Laxus has politely asked that he spend his games with his grandpa for once in his life."_

* * *

 _Everyone joined in a unanimous, "Aw" until lightning crackled through the room and silenced everyone. Makarov held his hand up. "But it is as Mirajane said. This team is the best we could have hoped for, and I promise you!" Makarov turned and let the guild see Team Fairy Tail in full. Lucy hardened her expression, feeling confidence brim throughout her body from without her soul. "This team will prove we truly are the greatest in all Fiore!"_

The Sky Labyrinth neared completion. Lucy sighed away her nerves and took out two keys, the two that they'd discussed would be vital in their initial sprint through the maze. The team's strategy of how to take down the Sky Labyrinth, as they understood it, blitzed through her mind.

Something fizzled before the labyrinth until it cleared up and there, in the sky, stood the smiling, big-headed face of Mato, the pumpkin-man mascot...except, something was a bit different.

"Hey, uh, I don't remember the pumpkin having boobs before," Cana said.

Mato, who wore the same outfit but did indeed have a slight bust, raised their hands in the air and exclaimed, "Hello wizards and witches and welcome to the Preliminary Round of the X793 Dragon Festival!" A light roar from the stadium. Lucy shook herself down, still bracing herself. Mato waved their hands around before the crowd silenced, and the tense air returned to a silent Crocus. "Wizards, you have on minute remaining before the paths to the labyrinth open! The first eight teams to arrive in the stadium will be declared the winners! Remember: you have to enter and leave as a five-person team; anything less will result in disqualification! Good luck, and happy running!"

Mato's ethereal form vanished. Erza turned to the others and they huddled together, "Remember the plan. Gray, you all set?"

Gray tapped his pocket and nodded. Lucy swallowed the lump in her throat. Erza placed her hand in the middle, with the Fairy Tail salute instead of an open hand.

"I believe in us just as I believe in Fairy Tail," Erza said. "And never forget, we have the love and support of our entire guild backing us. With that kind of power, nothing can stop us!"

"Damn straight," Cana said, putting her hand in the middle.

"Let's show these punks whose the real boss around Fiore," Gray said, putting his hand in the middle.

"I'm all fired up!" Natsu exclaimed, sliding his hand in the middle.

"Nothing's going to stop us," Lucy said, and finally put her hand in. On three, Erza threw them into the air and they cheered, ensuring everyone else could hear them.

A horn blared around the city and they all whipped around to see a rainbow bridge shoot down from the labyrinth, which was already revolving and twisting around, making it near impossible to find their way through with just a regular map.

"Go get 'em, team," Gajeel said.

"You heard the man!" Gray exclaimed, and with a battle cry, Erza led the charge.

She leaped onto the platform, followed by Lucy and Cana, and then Gray and Natsu. They sprinted up the incline. Lucy's adrenaline kicked in so she didn't even feel the burn or steepness of the incline against her thighs. She had her two keys out and at the ready, one in each hand. She looked across the way to see the Shellia and Carla using their magic to practically cart Team Lamia Scale up to the labyrinth.

"Here we go!" Erza exclaimed, and leapt forward, toward the entry. Her body flashed, and before she made contact with the wall, she Requipped into her Lightning Empress armor and slammed her staff on the ground, igniting the ground with lightning and shooting sparks throughout the entire labyrinth. Lucy took off in her sprint, taking to the air and exclaiming,

" _Open, Gate of the Scorpion! Scorpio_!"

Scorpio appeared in a brilliant golden light before them, and without Lucy even needing to say anything, thanks to some good old fashion pre-planning, Scorpio immediately dusted the entire place, filling it with dust.

Cana then slid ahead of them, just before they breached their opening. " _Bubble Card_!"

Tiny pockets of air wrapped around Team Fairy Tail's faces, protecting them from the sandstorm Scorpio created. Gray and Natsu then slid in around them, moving through the sandstorm and attacking, together, to create a spray of mist that shrouded them completely.

The team finally stopping moving, having created the perfect smokescreen for their location, and obscuring anyone from knowing where they were. Scorpio moved next to Lucy, crossing his arms.

"Ain't no sand up and to the right, Lucy," he said. "Probably your best bet to head on that way."

"Thank, you Scorpio," Lucy said. "You did great."

Scorpio bowed his head and vanished. Lucy turned to Erza and nodded, pointing to the right. Erza raised her sword and charged forward again. They moved in the same formation, moving in a diamond-like shape with Erza taking point, Cana in the middle, Natsu and Lucy on either side of her, and then Gray taking up the rear, his Ice-Make: Ice Wall at the ready at a moment's notice, while Natsu could repel anyone with his Fire Magic and Lucy was at the ready with her second key: Taurus. She skimmed her hand over the Gemini key, just in case they needed a slight distraction.

Team Fairy Tail turned the corner and were immediately met with a sharp turn that would've sent them flying, but Erza had the intuition enough to yell, "Left!" immediately after they turned right. They did so, and Lucy checked over her shoulder to see another wizard guild that'd been chasing after them plummet, their vision rendered useless from their initial entrance.

She stole a glance outside, where a counter hung over the stadium: of the ninety-six guilds that entered, only eighty remained, and it'd only been a minute or so. Lucy tried to push the number out of her head. Just gotta think about your next step, nothing else!  
Their path took them straight for several minutes before they had to make another decision, and Erza turned left again, then they immediately straightened out into a tilted hallway. They had to run awkwardly on two walls that suddenly started spinning.

"Stay steady, everyone!" Erza exclaimed.

Cana reached out and grasped both Lucy's right arm and Natsu's left to steady herself and the three rang in a spiral for a moment before they managed to straighten out and reach the end of the path, which dropped them into a massive checkered room. For a moment, as they plummeted through the ground, Lucy saw their future in the Grand Magic Games in jeopardy, but it wasn't her faith in the labyrinth that kept her steady, but faith in Erza, and her guidance.

They each hit the ground but there was no time to lose. Without a word, Erza dashed forward. Everyone tried to keep pace, but for some reason, Erza moved much faster than everyone else. Lucy tightened her grip on Taurus's key.

Erza Requipped again into her Flame Empress Armor and slammed an invisible wall, making it shake and lighting it with fire.

"Natsu!" she exclaimed.

The flames were sucked free of the wall and into Natsu's mouth, charging up his fist to punch through the checkered-wall, created as an optical illusion to appear as a mere extension of the room.

"How'd you notice?" Cana asked as the wall crumbled before them.

"It was spinning just as we entered, but the rest of the room was not," Erza said. "The creators of the maze may have underestimated our speed when moving through this."

"Or our strategy," Gray said.

Erza nodded and turned forward again, Requipping back into her normal attire. "Right. We should anticipate the other guilds coming upon us very soon; I imagine some will try and use the same strategy we did last time of creating a map to follow."  
"Really, you guys used a map last time?" Cana asked. "We didn't."

"What'd you do, them?" Natsu asked.

Cana shrugged. "Mira, Laxus, and Jellal just flew us through it while Gajeel blasted through the walls. Pretty easy."

"Yeah, I guess so," Gray muttered.

"I think our strategy will be a bit more succinct, though, and will definitely narrow down the competition," Erza said.

The walls in front of them began to shift once more but after a minute or so they stopped. Erza stepped forward, waved her sword through the air, and they began to move again.

"Hurry!" she exclaimed. "They'll stop moving once we're halfway through!"

They blitzed forward again. Natsu chuckled. "Man, I love that they're able to prevent motion sickness! This would be the worst thing ever if I was puking my brains out!"

"Worse for you or for us?" Cana asked.

"The answer is yes," Lucy said.

Just as Erza predicted, the room did stop and a natural doorway appeared before them, tucked in the corner and barely visible. Erza slid through it, prompting the others to do the same. Lucy went before Cana, though the tile burnt some of her leg. Cana slid through just after Lucy, and the door sealed shut. Lucy spun around and the wall didn't just spin this time, it completely moved.

"Oh, great," Cana muttered.

Lucy grit her teeth. "Of all the people we had to go and lose…"

Erza chuckled. "It was Natsu and Gray."

* * *

 **Team Fairy Tail has entered the great maze and as usual, things have taken a bit of a turn! Should be fun to get to see the girls figure out their way out while the boys...well, it's Natsu and Gray, they're gonna do SOMETHING but calling it productive may be a little optimistic.**

 **Next time we'll find out who escaped the Preliminary Round, and get the start of a new tradition for the Dragon Festival, as well as finally find out the rosters for the other seven guilds!**

 **Hope you guys are enjoying this and if you like this story please check out my other story _Fairy Tail - New Era_!**

 **Also still open for one-on-one (or two-on-two) battles for this Grand Magic Games! Let me hear your suggestions and I'll see if I can incoporate them!**


	4. Chapter 3 - Sky Labyrinth Pt 2

Gray smoothed his hand over the checkered wall in front of them, finally done with its revolution. Natsu fidgeted behind him.

"Can't believe we just got cut off like that," he said. "Who the heck designed this, anyway?"

"Someone that wanted to do this, probably," Gray said.

"Well they ain't gonna keep us separate for long!" Natsu exclaimed.

Gray rolled his eyes and stepped to the side. No bother telling Natsu to calm down, or to not just…

" _Fire Dragon Iron Fist_!"

Natsu blasted a hole straight through the wall, revealing not the other side of the wall where the girls were, but instead a brand new part of the maze. Gray stepped through the hole in the wall and started down the labyrinth.

"Come on, let's hurry up and keep going," Gray said.

"Why are you so relaxed?" Natsu asked. "You know something I don't?"

"Does that surprise you?"

"Oh shut up."

Gray jogged forward and Natsu kept up. Gray kept his eyes fixed momentarily to the walls around them. They brimmed with overgrowth, like they'd just come out of a maze in someone's backyard. Gray sighed.

"This is going to be a pain to get around," he muttered. "With how much these walls are changing it may take us a few hours to find the girls."  
"No it won't," Natsu said.

Natsu stepped around Gray, walking with his head and neck craned forward, his nose wriggling. Gray grinned.

"I almost forgot you had a good sense of smell," Gray said.

"The best," Natsu said.

"Who you sniffing out, Lucy?"

"No, Cana."

"Cana?"

"I'm surprised _you_ can't smell all the ale she drinks. She's practically coated in it. I think I have a trail, and we'll just have to blast our way through."  
"Good enough for me," Gray said, reaching into his pocket. He removed a small orb, a frosty looking thing, but replicating its original shape perfectly. He jogged behind Natsu, who picked up speed the more they made their way through the maze.

The stone walls turned to actual hedges that shook and quivered. Gray gazed up and saw not the sky above him, but the city of Crocus. Some sort of gravity magic, likely the same kind that Tartaros had used when they fought on their floating island, was keeping them not only anchored to the maze, but also prevented the serious vertigo that would come with it.

No, that couldn't be it. Perhaps the magic wasn't as potent on the fringes; they'd need to be careful it they strayed too far from the core of the maze; this, though, was likely something they'd need to do for their plan to work.

Natsu stopped dead in his tracks and also looked above him, then below him. He frowned and snarled.

"What is it?" Gray asked. It was like he talked to a dog, but Gray didn't want to disrespect a canine's intelligence.

"There's someone right above us," Natsu said. "But I'm not sure if it's _above_ us or _below_ us, considering that we're, like, upside-down."

"This is why you stopped walking?"

A low rumbling chuckle emanated from the hedges around them. Gray braced himself and slid the orb back into his pocket. The hedges quivered and shook more, and the vines around them started to snap and coalesce together. Natsu ignited his fists.

"Natsu Dragneel and Gray Fullbuster I presume," the voice said.

The hedges stopped shivering for a moment before they ceded back a bit, leaving three humanoid shapes, created from the vines and leaves of the maze. They stood about ten feet tall and were pretty thick, and Gray sensed heavy doses of magic from them, though it seemed to him like it wasn't magic power, but just life magic.

"What do you want?" Gray asked.

"Gray let me roast these things so we can keep moving," Natsu said. "They're blocking my scent."

"I ain't telling you no."

"Forge your paths with flames and fail," the voice said. "And find not your friends with the cold of hearts. Seek the truth of mine words to you, and the task before shall steer you false."

"That last part didn't make any sense," Gray said. He raised his hand in front of Natsu, signaling him to cool it. "Repeat that last sentence. If there's more, tell us."

One hedge stepped forward among the rest. "Seek the truth of mine words to you, and the task before shall steer you false." It paused, then said, "Three spirits of yore do yet stand, but three pieces of lore you must comprehend. Of balance, shape, and most holy light do thine fairies find themselves aflight."

"And you're sure we can't punch these things?" Natsu asked.

Gray looked to Crocus above—below—him. Time was ticking. He half-turned to Natsu. "Can you smell anyone else, or just not Cana and the others?"

Natsu sniffed around. "I can smell Carla, Rogue, and I think Cobra. They're not anywhere near here, and they're still moving."

"In the maze?"

"In the maze."

"Then maybe they got slowed by these things, too." Gray raised his hand to his chin. The task before shall steer you false? Gray looked to the hedges; stoic, unwavering, powerful. Their voices seemed oddly familiar, but Gray couldn't quite put a finger on it.

"Is there anything else?" Gray asked. "We just need to answer your riddle?"

"Only a fairy's heart can pass this test," the spirit said. "And thus seek the path forward unto glory."

"So getting by these guys doesn't guarantee us a way out, but it does put us on the right path," Gray said. "But, the path before?"

"It's making my head hurt!" Natsu exclaimed. "I'm sure Lucy could figure this out."

"I'm sure she could," Gray said, and pulled out his small frost orb. "If we could just talk to her, that'd be real great."

Natsu snarled then stepped away from Gray. Gray opened his mouth to ask what he was doing, but instead Natsu sucked in a breath, then bellowed—probably louder than anything Gray had ever heard before, "LUCY!"

Her name echoed through the entire maze. Gray rolled his eyes. "Nice going you idiot, now everyone's gonna know—"

A light shone from the orb, and through the frosty glass, Erza's face appeared. Lucy's face was scrunched up next to her.

"Holy crap, it worked!" Gray exclaimed. "Hey, flame-brain, get over here."

"What, did you find Lucy?" Natsu asked.

"Gray? Gray, can you hear us?" Erza asked.

"You bet, guess Ice-Make magic is even more handy than we ever knew," Gray said. "I'll have to teach this trick to Lyon once we're done here."

"Where are you two?" Erza asked. "Lucy heard Natsu call her name. We thought it was close, but, judging by your surroundings that wouldn't seem to be the case."

"Yeah, Natsu tried blasting through the walls to find you but the maze must have shifted you guys away already," Gray said. "Have you moved?"

"Not at all," Erza said.

Gray glanced up to the three hedges. "Well, listen, Erza, we've got a bit of a situation here. These guys aren't letting us through; they've given us some sort of a riddle we have to solve."

"A riddle?" Lucy asked, butting Erza out of the way. "Tell me!"

* * *

Lucy rested her chin on her fist and thought the riddle over out loud: "Seek the truth of mine words to you, and the task before shall steer you false. Three spirits of yore do yet stand, but three pieces of lore you must comprehend. Of balance, shape, and most holy light do thine fairies find themselves aflight. Only a fairy's heart can pass this test, and thus seek the path unto glory."

"Gray, stay on your guard and don't move from your position," Erza said. "We'll try and find you."

"How the heck you gonna do that?" Natsu barked.

Cana grinned and stepped forward. She flicked her hand and a card with a rather sexy image of Gray appeared on it.

"Whipped up a few of these bad boys for Juvia so she could know where Gray was," Cana said. "Not one of my finer moments."

"One of your drunker moments?" Lucy asked, snickering.

"But," Cana said, pointedly. "It'll help us track you down so long as you two don't move."

"Sounds good," Gray said. "I'll have Natsu try and keep his smells up for everyone else, maybe we can keep an eye—or, nose—on where the competition is."

"Very well, see you soon," Erza said. She squeezed her hand around the communication lacrima. She'd explainedafter Lucy heard Natsu's voice, that she and Gray planned for this eventuality and had Gray attempt to recreate the lacrima. Turned out that worked quite well.

"Well, let's get moving, then," Erza said.

Lucy nodded. "So far so good, then?"

"Indeed," Erza said. "Our plan is going well so far, although I didn't anticipate any riddles this time around."

Cana flicked her wrist and activated the card and jogged ahead. "Well we aren't going to get anywhere by just walking, are we? Come on, ladies!"

Lucy followed after, mulling the puzzle over in her head. The first and last parts were easy, but, what kept her held up was the bit about the task before steering them false and the three bits of lore they had to understand. Balance, shapes, and most holy light? What could that possibly mean? Was it something to do with the lore of Crocus? She desperately wished Levy were with her; Lucy was good with words, but not with puzzles.

They rounded a corner back to another checkered part of the hallway, where light remained staggered. Erza held a hand out and stopped them.

"Wait, this is likely a trap," she said.

Lucy and Cana exchanged a look, then the air started to suck in around them. A familiar black-and-green glow almost took them over before they leapt through the shadows and were blasted through the wall.

Lucy swung her arms out and managed to catch Cana and Erza; Erza hung to the wall by her fingertips, but Lucy had Cana tight by the forearm. Erza hefted them both up, probably making some comment about their weight, and Lucy hauled Cana up as well.

"This was likely a trap set by Minerva and Rogue," Erza muttered. "We're fools, we should've been doing the same!"

"Still say we're a bit away from Natsu and Gray, too," Cana said.

"We need to be more wary of traps going forward," Erza said. "Cana, if you wouldn't mind?"

Cana nodded and flicked her wrist to make more cards appear in her hand. Erza turned to Lucy.

"It's a perplexing riddle, isn't it?" she asked as the hallway erupted in small, shadowy explosions.

"The path before shall steer you false?" Lucy muttered. "Like, obviously it did. It led them to the maze, I feel like there has to be more to it than that."

"Perhaps they meant that the hedge maze was specifically designed to turn them away," Erza said. "I'm honestly surprised that Natsu hasn't bothered to destroy them yet."

"That's probably Gray stopping him," Lucy said.

"Hey, we're all clear!" Cana called.

Erza and Lucy followed her, breaking into a trot once again. Lucy balled her fists, still holding her second key, awaiting its use. She could call one of her spirits to try and sort it out, but this sounded like a test for a living member of Fairy Tail.

Wait. Lore. Living member of Fairy Tail.

She moved to speak to Erza but Erza's arm suddenly swung out and caught Lucy. She had Cana by the bra-strap and yanked the brunette out of the way of a shifting wall once again, and once it subsided, four of the Fourth Generation Dragon Slayers that Zash Cain had once instilled stood on the other side.

"Those things?" Lucy asked. "I thought they belonged to that monster Zash!"

"Fiore must have reprogramed them following Acnologia's on Tartaros in case he ever decided to strike Crocus," Erza muttered. She unsheathed her sword. Cana stepped forward, handing Lucy the card with Gray on it.

"Lucy, you keep your focus on deciphering that riddle," Cana said. "And make sure Gray and Natsu don't go anywhere."

"We'll handle these two," Erza said. " _Requip_!"

The Fourth Generation Dragon Slayers braced and then advanced on them. There were five in total, probably meant to take on a full team of wizards. Lucy closed her eyes, placing her full faith in the two in front of her to take on the Dragon Slayers. She felt a blast of wind and saw Cana go soaring by before she caught herself and sprinted back into battle.

" _Summoned Lightning_!" she exclaimed.

Erza, already in her Lightning Empress Armor, absorbed the lightning and channeled it through her mace and blasted two of the Dragon Slayers away with ease. Lucy braced herself. Cana landed, dodging the fist of another and leaving them exposed for Erza to slam with her maze again.

Cana cast two cards forward and slammed her hands together. " _Prayer's Fountain_!"

Four streams of water blasted from the magic and blasted the two remaining Dragon Slayers in the back. Erza cast her lightning again, in an arc, and electrocuted the lacrima-laced beasts, disintegrating them practically on impact.

"And here I was thinking I might have to use Fairy Glitter on these assholes," Cana said. She and Erza high-fived, and Erza changed back to her standard outfit.

Something struck within Lucy. "Fairy Glitter?"

 _Three pieces of lore. One of balance, of shape, and most holy light_. _Only a fairy's heart…_

How could she have been so stupid! No, but this still didn't explain what the first bit meant. The path before you being false? What did hat mean? Were they just supposed to turn around and rely on _those_ spells? No, they were meant to find those spirits, meant to find that riddle. But why hadn't Natsu attacked.

"Erza, call Gray again," Lucy said, and flicked the card back to Cana. They nodded to each other and started running, but Lucy moved a little fast to give them a solid sense of urgency.

Gray's bored expression reappeared on the orb. "Figure it out?"

"I think so," Lucy said, taking the lacrima from Erza. "Why haven't you guys attacked it yet?"

"Because it said something about attacking with fire and ice and failing," Gray said. "It doesn't want us to attack."

 _The task before shall steer you false_.

Lucy grinned. "I've got it! We're on our way, and then we'll get the hell out of here!"

"Lucy, you really know what to do?" Erza asked.

Lucy nodded and tossed the lacrima back to Erza. "Yup. Get ready to get the plan back in action, Erza, because we'll be outta here super quick!"

Cana took point again, reinvigorated by Lucy's words. The women sprinted through the maze, leaping over crevices and sliding under low-hanging walls. Lucy squeezed her key tight in her hand.

They rounded one final corner and were in part of the hedge-maze. Cana picked up speed.

"This way!" she exclaimed.

"Cana!" Lucy exclaimed. "Once we find Natsu and Gray, you need to use Fairy Glitter. Hit it with everything you've got!" She turned to Erza. "Once she does that, we need to grab Natsu and Gray and _move_. I have a feeling those things aren't attacking yet for a reason."

"Lucy, you never cease to surprise me!" Erza exclaimed.

Cana howled with laughter. "We're really gonna show them what Fairy Tail is all about!"

Lucy and Erza shouted in agreement. Erza shredded through part of the maze with her sword and revealed Natsu and Gray before them. Cana leapt through, her right hand braced over her left arm and light shone from her body.

"Boys you better move or this is gonna hurt real bad!" she exclaimed. "You want the light of Fairy Tail? Here it is! _Fairy Glitter_!"

Erza braced herself behind Cana and caught the girl as she let loose the stream of magic that obliterated and brightened up the entire maze before them. The three standing shrubs were disintegrated, and in their place was a golden walkway that led not just further into the maze, but visibly closer to the stadium.

"Let's move!" Erza exclaimed.

Natsu and Gray waited for the girls to dash by and then caught up. Natsu reached out and clasped Lucy on the shoulder.

"I knew you'd figure it out!" he exclaimed.

"Thanks!" she said, blushing a bit more than she expected.

Erza led them across the near-invisible pathway that seemed to vanish the closer to the other side they got. She leapt across, spotting another set of wizards in front of them. They all turned and Lucy saw, instead, that they were Fiore Knights, armed to the teeth with anti-magic weapons. Natsu roared and followed right behind her.

The knights spread out and allowed Fairy Tail to land there. Natsu and Gray's fire-ice auras collided and formed a bit of steam around them. Lucy could still hear Erza's words in her mind from the planning,

"Should we enter combat, Natsu and Gray shall provide us ample cover to prepare our attacks. Lucy, that will be when you come in."

" _Open, Gate of the Twins!"_

From the mist appeared Lucy, in much more scandalous clothing, but also leading with a patented Lucy kick. The knights dodged it but their attention was taken, immediately, and allowed Cana to make her attack.

" _Wind Edge_!" she yelled, raising a blue-purple card and a green card. A gust of wind knocked the mist away and also slammed all of the knights away as well.

Gemini's gate closed when Lucy sprinted by. Lucy gate the twins a high-five as the group continued.

"Natsu, anything new on the others?" Gray asked.

"Yeah, I can smell a whole lot of normal people!" Natsu exclaimed. "We're coming up on our exit point!"

"Then it's time we conclude our plan!" Erza exclaimed.

Cana sprinted close to Natsu. "Alright, Natsu, mind giving a girl a lift?"

"Not a problem," he said, and Cana leapt up and hopped atop Natsu's back, wrapping her arms tight around his neck and still holding two cards out.

They moved through a tunnel and into another corridor. Gray flicked his wrist and purple ice filled the entire place, allowing them to easily slide through it.

 _"Remember, everyone, the key to reading these rules is the wording," Erza had said. Lucy grinned, now only need to rely on the speed of her legs to get her through to the end._

Erza changed into her Amadura Fairy guise and Gray made an ice-ramp to allow them to easily take the turn. Lucy squatted down and skated with her shoes across it, then pushed herself forward to catch up with Erza.

 _"Once we're in a break-away, Lucy and I can form an arrow-head, with Natsu as our propulsion," she said. "There won't be anything that will stop us."  
_ Gray froze the ground in front of them again. They swept right past another guild—was that Mermaid Heel?—and Erza held her arm out, grasping a sword in one hand and slicing a line along the way. Lucy extracted one of her Celestial keys and pointed it at her chest.

" _Star Dress_!" she exclaimed. _"Virgo_!"

Her maid's outfit flashed onto her. She and Erza exchanged a look once again and then nodded.

"Gray, here we go!" she exclaimed and punched the ground. She ripped a hole straight through the ground.

Cana, instantly behind them, flicked a card up and created an illusory wall there, in case anyone thought there was solid ground.

 _"We can't have anyone following our idea, so we'll have Cana lay traps during our escape," Erza said. "But in the likely even that this does not work…well, Natsu has quite the habit for destruction, doesn't he?"_

Erza and Natsu switched places and Lucy got out of her Star Dress. Cana flicked a card to Natsu, and it ignited instantly. Natsu took a great chomp out of. Gray froze the floor they plummeted toward and Erza used her power to surge them forward to give them a boost. They slid along the ground once again and headed straight for a wall, but just below them, Lucy, saw was the stadium.

" _Fire Dragon_!" Natsu roared.

 _"After all," Erza said. "Hisui said we only need to get to the stadium from the maze. She didn't mention that we needed to find an exit…or that we can't make our own."_

" _Iron Fist_!"

Natsu's flaming fist destroyed the wall in front of them, melting whatever was left of it, and leaving Team Fairy Tail exposed to the high-altitude of the maze. They surged forward, though, from Gray's ramp. Lucy flipped in the air, using the last of her magic to activate her Aries Star Dress.

She cast a cloud down far below them. Everyone's eyes in the stadium immediately turned to them. Natsu roared in excitement while Erza, Gray, and Cana just chuckled their lives away.

The puffy magic cloud caught them and softened their arrival into the stadium. Lucy made sure to tuck her legs in, then rolled forward as she reached the ground, sliding onto her feet and maintaining her balance. Cana bumped her from behind and Gray caught them all with ice around their legs.

Nobody in the stadium moved an inch or made a sound. Then, from somewhere in the crowd, Happy's familiar voice exclaimed, "YEAH!"

All of Fairy Tail then joined in, followed by the rest of the crowd. Gray melted the ice and Lucy turned to face the rest of her team, who each grinned to one another. They huddled up, put the guild's hand sign in, and then flung their hands into the air, cheering themselves on just like the rest of the crowd.

"Incredible!" commentator and announcer Chapati Lola exclaimed. "Team Fairy Tail comes from out of nowhere and manages to blast their way through the Sky Labyrinth and arrive at the heart of the stadium in grand fashion!"

"I'm surprised they all managed to stick the landing," Mister Yajima said. "That might've been the most impressive part of all!"

"Honestly, I think he might be right," Cana said. "Agh, jeez, almost threw out my back there."

Lucy chuckled and clapped Cana on the butt. "Ah, you're fine, just get a few drinks in you and you won't even feel it!"

"You ain't wrong, sister!" Cana exclaimed, then wrapped Lucy into a headlock. "Hell yeah, Fairy Tail's gonna stay number one, baby!"

* * *

The remaining five guilds all trickled in with due time. When the final one, Blue Pegasus surprisingly, arrived, Hisui issued all of the teams to their own respective bleachers scattered about the stadium, telling the teams that they would have their balconies all set up accordingly for the games proper to start.

"And now to announce your teams for this year's Dragon Festival!" she exclaimed. Erza gave Mirajane a warm smile and approached the edge of their bleachers, where Master Makarov was standing. Asuka rushed up and gave Erza's leg a big hug; in response, Erza hefted Asuka up and let her sit atop her shoulders.

"Arriving first in the race was Lamia Scale," Hisui said. Erza raised her eyebrows and gave Gray a surprised look. He saw him mouth _Lyon_ to Juvia, then looked back to where Lamia Scale sat. Their old lady guild master, Ooba, had one of their guild members spinning wildly in excitement. "Competing for Lamia Scale were Sherry Blendy, Yuka Suzaki, Toby Horhota, and Carla the Exceed, led by Lyon Vastia!

"In second place came Sabertooth, surprising few fans. Led by Minerva Orland, Sabertooth this year is competing with Rogue Cheney, Rufus Lore, Orga Nanagear, and Dobengal…no last name listed! Sorry!"

A few chuckles from the crowd. Erza glanced to Minerva, who waved to the Sabertooth fans. Frosch, atop Rogue's shoulders, mirrored her exactly. Adorable.

"In third place was Fairy Tail!" Hisui took a moment to allow the crowd to get done roaring their name. Erza's heart swelled. Asuka screamed loudly in praise. "Led by Erza Scarlet, Fairy Tail competes with Lucy Heartfilia, Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster, and Cana Alberona-Clive!"

A sudden cry came from Gildarts, who bear-hugged Cana and exclaimed, "You're using my name, too!"

"Ugh, dad! Hisui said I had to use my real name, and since you're my _real_ dad it wouldn't be right, otherwise, lay off!"

"In fourth place came Quatro Cerberus, led by Rocker and followed by Warcry, Jager, Nobarly, and Semmes! And, again, no last names given!"

"Wow, Crime Sorciere didn't even place in the top half," muttered Laxus, who'd appeared suddenly on the other side of Master Makarov.

"Likely so it wouldn't anger anyone who still bears resentment in the crowd," Master said.

"Yeah, but, they could've easily come in first place," Laxus said. "They were holding back."

"I can assure that won't happen anymore," Erza said. "That bunch only wants to make sure they lull everyone into a false sense of security."

"Best be on your guard, then," Master said.

"In fifth place comes the ladies of Mermaid Heel! Led by Kagura Mikazuchi and competing with Arana Webb, Beth Vanderwood, Risly Law, and Milliana…the cat!"

Erza chuckled. Oh, Milliana. You'll certainly keep these games entertaining.

"In sixth places comes a new entry to these games, Sorciere, led by Erik Solidus." Hisui hesitated, then continued, "Who competed alongside Sorano Agria, Richard Buchanan, Sawyer Thompson, and Macbeth Zero!"

"Hmm, interesting," Erza muttered. "Macbeth retained Zero's name."

"That guild is all about redeeming oneself from their dark past," Master said. "It's likely he wishes to make a statement to the public that he can bear this past and still move forward into the light."

"Well said, Master," Erza said, and grinned a little wider.

"In seventh place came another newcomer to the games, Orochi's Twilight, led by Thibault!" Hisui exclaimed. "Competing alongside him were Bluenote Stinger, Mattan Ginger, Chrisack, and Obra!"

"All former enemies," Laxus said.

"All looking to get revenge on Fairy Tail," Makarov said. A little smile tugged at his lips, now. "This should make things very interesting."

"And our final guild to qualify for the Dragon Festival this year is Blue Pegasus!" Hisui exclaimed, and they received the most cheers behind Fairy Tail. "Led by Ichiya, he competed alongside Hibiki Lates, Eve Tearm, Ren Akatsuki, and Riko Applico!"

The crowd cheered for a good string of minutes. Erza clapped for her fellow competitors, prompting Asuka to do the same, as well as adding in a few hoots and hollers along the way. When the clapping stopped, Erza's eyes fell. She saw Master Makarov tense for a moment, then roll back his shoulders and crack his knuckles a bit. Laxus chuckled.

"So, you are going to go through with it after all, huh?" he asked.

"Go through with what?" Erza asked, but Hisui's booming voice captured the stadium.

The Queen herself appeared on a massive screen overhead, visible from within and without the stadium. She wore a dress similar to the one from the dinner, but one that was a bit more comfortable in the summer heat. She smiled down to all of her denizens.

"I could not be more thrilled for this year's events and I know the competition will be as healthy and entertaining as ever," Hisui said. "Competitors, arrive back in your team balconies tomorrow morning by nine for the first event." She bowed her head and the crowd clapped for that. Hisui raised her head and tried to hide a smile, but failed. "And now, I'm pleased to announce a bit of extracurricular entertainment for you all. I spoke with a select group of individuals about an extra event for the preliminary rounds, and we all decided that this would be the most interesting course to take. It shall _not_ count toward the team's final score, but will rather be a show of good sport, and powerful magic. This year, for the first time, we shall host a pre-games Battle Royale!"

The crowd roared, but Hisui held a hand up before they could get too worked up. " _Not_ of our competitors…but of Masters."

Erza's eyes widened and everyone in Fairy Tail immediately looked to Makarov, who was already gone. She looked down below and Asuka pointed ahead to the little old man making his way through the stadium. Six others strode forward as well.

"Representing Fairy Tail is Makarov Dreyar, the guild's most prominent master," Hisui said. "Representing Sorciere will be Jellal, a former Wizard Saint and Magic Council member."

Erza's heart seized. Natsu rushed up to the side of the balcony, roaring, "Wait, _he_ gets to compete, too?"

"Representing Sabertooth is the youngest guild master in recent Fiore history, Sting Eucliffe, one of the seven who aided in Acnologia's demise," Hisui said. The crowd cheered for that. "Representing Blue Pegasus is a wizard of great mystery and charm, Bob. Representing his pups of Quatro Cerberus is the pack leader himself, Goldmine. Representing Orochi's Twilight is new master Banaboster."

"That foul monster," Erza said. Disgust filled her mouth. He'd been the one rallying against Fairy Tail during their seven years of stasis. "Destroy him, Master! Do it for Fairy Tail!"

"Mermaid Heel's master has decided, due to personal reasons, to forgo attendance once again this year, leaving just one more guild. Representing Lamia Scale shall not be their master Ooba, but will instead be another wizard of great prominence," Hisui said. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you current Magic Council Member and God of Ishgar, Jura Neekis!"

Erza's eyes widened and the stadium went absolutely silent for a moment before the greatest cheer of the day settled in. All of the Guild Masters—Sting, Makarov, Jellal, Bob, Goldmine, Banaboster, and Jura—ignited auras all around them.

"Welcome to the Dragon Festival of X793!" Hisui exclaimed. "Let the battle commence!"

* * *

 **YES! HERE WE GO!**

 **I have been so SO excited to get to this preliminary showdown. This little event is one of the main things that pushed me to write this story. I have so many cool plans to show off the Masters' powers and what they can do. Anything goes in this fight: it's a free-for-all! This alone might take up three chapters of the story, so brace yourself for some serious action coming your way!**

 **OH, and we got the rosters for all the teams! So now if you want to make any requests for what wizards you think would make for a good battle, send them to me and I'll see if we can make them happen! One vs. one or two vs. two only, please. I've already got two fun ones in mind, but I want to get feedback and input from you guys.**

 **And don't forget, if you liked this please go check out _Fairy Tail - New Era,_ my other fan-fic set 4 years after Acnologia's defeat, featuring a ton of new and old faces for Fairy Tail to deal with. Thank you so much for reading! See you for the Master's Battle Royale! **


	5. Chapter 4 - Master Battle Royale

Sting curled his hands into fists. Bob, the Blue Pegasus Master, winked once at him before giggling giddily.

"Oh, how exciting!" he exclaimed.

Goldmine, Quatro Cerberus's Guild Master, nodded. "Indeed. How fortunate is it for three former guildmates to all be competing against one another in these games? I couldn't have imagined in in all my years."  
"Indeed," Makarov said. Sting glanced to him, still keeping his guard up. "I hope you two don't disappoint."  
"I'll be sure to throw the gambit at you, Makarov," Goldmine said. He clapped his hands together and within minutes he was gone.

Sting tensed, but nobody else moved. Bob just titled his head back and forth. Jura had his arms folded in the massive sleeves of his clothes, eyes clothes, aura tight. Jellal was basically the same but with his arms at his side.

Makarov sighed and crossed his arms. "Ah, we're doing this, are we?"

Doing what? Sting shifted his foot and it seemed the entire battlefield sprang to life, despite nobody moving. Magic power unlike any he'd felt before crashed down in front of him, nearly overwhelming him.

This…this was their combined power? Sting snarled. No, he wouldn't have to fight that force all at once. It was a battle royale, after all. He'd take them on one or two at a time.

He surveyed the field again. Goldmine was gone but he and Bob were older men, Sting could probably take them out quick. He snarled. No, best leave that to someone like Makarov. Seemed there was fresh blood that needed attention there. His eyes fell to Banaboster, who impatiently tapped his toe on the ground. Another geezer, and another mystery. Sting had only ever seen Jellal and Jura use their magic before.

And they all knew his magic. He'd put it on display for them for how many years? Sting even knew from talks with Natsu that Jellal had fought true Dragon Slayer magic directly once, and then of course Jura took on Laxus in the last Grand Magic Games that Fairy Tail won.

Banaboster stepped toward the center of the octagon. "Alright, I've had enough of this. I'll just wrap this up quick." He snapped his fingers and Goldmine reappeared, hovering right behind Makarov. "Nobody's gonna use magic without my knowing about it."

"How foolish must you be, Banaboster, to think you are once again in control of the situation?" Makarov asked, still meditating.

"I'll make sure to save you for last, Makarov," Banaboster said, and stopped, dead-center. He pointed to Sting and snapped his fingers.

Sting barely saw it coming. He swerved and barely dodged an invisible line that shot straight out of Banaboster's ring. It wasn't magic; it was just a trick, a tool! Sting swung his arm up and a ball of light shot out of his fist. Banaboster closed up his fist and the string webbed up and protected him from the blast, nullifying it instantly.

"Sting has launched the first attack!" Chapati Lola's shrill voice exclaimed.

"I'm surprised Banaboster was able to block something of that caliber, though I suppose he isn't a Guild Master without a reason," old man Yajima said.

Sting settled his feet again. Magic-cancelling tools? Maybe this old man wouldn't be so annoying to deal with. Sting surveyed the rest of the fighters. None were moving. Even Goldmine settled back into place into what was now a heptagon. Banaboster observed his surroundings same as Sting.

"What you have to learn, Banaboster, is that being impatient is the first thing that a guild master must forgo," Makarov said. "Just as a parent learns patience with his children, a guild master learns patience with his guild."

"Even if that guild is thrown together at the last moment to avenge some petty feud from years ago," Jura said with a smile.

"And even if the master isn't even as old as some of his members," Bob said. "They are still responsible for them all."

Patience. Sting looked around once more. They weren't waiting for the first punch or for someone to attack them. Goldmine had moved probably because he didn't like who he was near; he wanted to move away from Sting and near Makarov, whose magic he knew and understood.

Not to mention that he could get a different vantage point against anyone that jumped in the middle, as Banaboster had done so eagerly.

Sting sighed, feeling his aura waver around him a bit slower. He let magic pool throughout his entire body. He felt the raw but tamed Dragon Slayer magic pour out from his soul and from the lacrima bestowed upon him so long ago, filling him with its power. When he opened his eyes he felt that much better, that much more powerful.

Banaboster snarled. "You're all so odd, you know that?"

"Indeed," Jellal said.

What happened next happened so fast, but Sting saw all of it and didn't even flinch. A wave of magic, swept from Jellal's hand, knocked Banaboster in the side and sent him flying out of the battleground and into the Orochi's Twilight balcony. The crowd reacted two seconds after it actually happened, while the other wizards watching were no doubt simply too stunned to remark on it.

Makarov chuckled. "Thank you, young man."

"Not a problem," Jellal said. "Sorry to have taken that opportunity from you, Master Makarov."

"It's okay," Makarov said. He opened his eyes at last and cracked his knuckles. "Like my old friends Goldmine and Bob said, we have old business that needs settling."

"I can only hope old age hasn't slowed you down, friend!" exclaimed Bob.

Sting braced himself. This was it. He felt the tension rising all around the arena; the crowd was in a fever pitch, screaming in excitement. Bob took one giddy step forward and then burst across the way. Makarov immediately shot up several feet, standing taller than even Jura, and caught Goldmine's swift kick and threw him toward Bob.

Jellal and Jura practically vanished and Jellal faded into golden light and Jura blasted into the sky. Sting took a step back, filling his hands with magic. He didn't want to have to use some of his spells yet if it meant retaining his magic.

Patience.

Sting nodded. He'd feel them out. He was strong enough to do that. Nobody was aiming to kill, and they were no doubt curious about his own abilities as well.

Still, that left the matte of where the hell they'd gone…

"Dragon Slayer, stay on your guard!" Jellal roared.

Sting looked up, immediately, and saw a massive plume of golden fire shooting down at him. Sting swung his arms and the sheer gust of wind coming out of it dissipated some of the flames, but not the force. Sting leaped back, sensing another presence behind him. He kicked out, blasting through some of the rocks from Jura, who wasn't even there.

Sting braced against them and used them to propel into the sky, where Jellal held his hands in some sort of symbol. A magic circle appeared in front of them and then, again, came fire. Sting punched through it, leaving a veil of white magic over his arm, but Jellal caught his fist, elbowed Sting in the gut and punched him toward the ground.

Sting used his magic to catch himself just before a massive pillar could smush him into the wall. He swiped up and cut the stone in two, using the dust as a smokescreen to blitz toward an unmoving Jura. Jellal raced him there. Jura momentarily braced himself and Sting couldn't feel anything but a grin catch his face.

"Remember, children, this is a battle royale!"

The voice caught him, and Jellal, off-guard. Goldmine, Bob, and Makarov all immediately turned around at them, their hands swelling with magic power. They'd just been using their conversation as a tactic to draw them in!

Sting roared and managed to repel some of the magic back, slamming Makarov in the side but he still took a hefty bit of ground and sand magic from Goldmine. Sting spun free of it, but was hounded by Bob, who phased right through Jura's magic and with a bit of a frown on his face, and some sparkles coming from his wings, blasted Sting with more magic that seemed to come from his wings.

The White Dragon Slayer propelled into the air, but was caught by a massive hand. He knew by the sound of the crowd what exactly was going on, and quickly felt himself flying through the air again. Sting contorted an spun in the air, then shot magic at the ground to push himself up.

He suspended in the air in the moment before free-fall. Jura was wrenched free of the battle by Goldmine, who used a nice kick to the side to knock him away. Jellal just managed to fend off a combined assault from Makarov and Bob.

For a moment, there was a twinge of fear. All of these men were legendary, they were revered and well-known before Sting even stepped foot in the stadium for the Grand Magic Games. What right did he have to be here among them?

But then he smiled. He had every right. He wasn't just a Dragon Slayer, he wasn't just a member of Sabertooth, he was their Guild Master.

"My guild's counting on me, dammit," Sting muttered. "And I won't let them down! White Drive!"

His aura ignited around him and momentarily caught the attention of the Guild Masters. Jellal fully turned to face him, and was unfortunately the target of Sting's attack. Sting's fist connected with Jellal's side and sent him spiraling across the arena. Sting slid then punched the ground, exploding white light everywhere. He dodged away from one of Makarov's beams and the two made eye contact. Makarov nodded to him, and before Sting could feel a hint of pride he had to dodge Jura's attack from behind.

* * *

"This is _so unfair_!" Natsu wailed, and practically leaned all the way over the edge. Another gust of wind knocked Lucy's hair all around and she had to keep a firm hand atop her head to settle it down. She sighed.

Happy roared excitement for Master Makarov, only just matching Frosch and Lector over at the Sabertooth fan-club, where their human members were mostly quiet. Minerva had her fisticuffs up, trying to tell or direct Sting what punches to throw next.

"Still can't believe Sting gets to fight now but I don't," Natsu said. "Just makes me want to punch that punk in the face even more!"  
"Sting is a friend, Natsu," Erza said, and clapped him on the back. She then gripped the back of his shirt tightly and wrenched him free. "And if I have to hear anymore _senseless_ crying out of you, I'll make sure to give you a reason to cry."

Natsu nodded and Erza let go of him. He and Happy braced against the wall and gave enthusiastically terrified thumbs-up to Master Makarov.

Asuka, standing atop the railing, roared praise for Gramps. Lucy did the same as he used some of his magic to knock away Iron Rock Jura. Jura! He swung some Ice Magic around and flung it toward Sting, who deflected it. Sting, surprisingly, held his own…

And then came Jellal, delivering a punch of humility right into Sting's face, knocking him into the wall on the other end of the stadium. But he didn't pursue; Goldmine did, instead, yelling something about how Sting was still a young pup who had a lot to learn.

That may be, Lucy thought, but was impressive nonetheless. She was just about to cross her arms when another blast of wind tussled her hair.

"Damn, they're really going at it," Gray muttered.

"Hardly," Laxus said. He was leaned against the railing, standing next to Mirajane and the Thunder Legion. "Gramps is still just warming up."

"Shouldn't he be a little worried, because of, you know, his age and all that?" Evergreen asked.

"That old man ain't ever gonna keel over," Gildarts said.

Lucy nodded. She wondered, for a moment, how he would fair in this arena. She raised her finger to her chin. Gildarts versus Jellal, or Gildarts versus Jura. Curious. Technically, if it were a battle of Guild Masters, he could compete. Erza could too.

She shrugged. And so could Macao at that point. Man, Fairy Tail sure did have a lot of masters under their belt.

Lucy was just about to voice another comment when another voice piped up behind them all, "Hi everyone, it's great to see you here!"

Happy spun around almost completely on his tail. Lucy did the same, but on her heels. Wendy and Carla, in her human form, stood at the other side of their booth, waving. They approached and were met by immediate greetings and hugs. Wendy made her way to the crowd to finally reach Team Natsu. She and Lucy shared a nice little hug.

"What are you doing all the way over here, Wendy?" Natsu asked.

"Shouldn't you be with Lamia Scale?" Happy said through gritted teeth.

Carla chuckled and patted him on the head, momentarily stunning him. "We figured that, since there are no real stakes in this fight, we'd come back over here for a little bit."

"Yeah, and we'd feel bad if we cheered against Master Makarov!" Wendy said. "He's doing so well. I didn't think he could take that many hits from other Guild Masters."

"He's a Wizard Saint," Laxus said. "Cut him a little slack."

Wendy bowed her head immediately. "You're right, I'm so sorry, I completely forgot!"

"It's easy to forget," Erza said with a smile. "When you think of Wizard Saints, you don't think of someone like Master."

"I don't know, I think he definitely fits the bill," Natsu said. "I mean, look at him he's old enough to be a saint."

"Erza," Laxus's voice said, calm but with oh so much contempt behind it. "Shall you punch this blabbering idiot, or will you give me the honor?"

Erza held her tongue behind her teeth. "We'll just ignore the comment."  
Lucy sneered. She totally agrees with Natsu.

Wendy folded her arms and leaned against the railing. Lucy did the same. "So, what made you want to be the Lamia Scale reserve member, Wendy?"

"Honsetly it wasn't up to me," Wendy said. "But I'm more than happy with it. I know Carla wanted to show off what an Exceed can really do, since the last time an Exceed took part, Nichiya got overwhelmed by Quatro Puppy."

"And it won't happen again," Carla said. "This I promise you."  
"Darn right," Happy said. "We Exceeds are as tough as Dragon Slayers!"

Carla shrugged. "Perhaps not to that extent, but we're definitely more formidable than your average person gives us credit for."  
Lucy nodded. Carla hopped atop the railing and sat with her legs over it. Asuka followed suit, and Carla allowed Asuka to fiddle with her tail for just a little bit.

Down on the battlefield, Master Makarov repelled one of Sting's attacks with relative ease while Jellal continued to throw out an array of different kinds of spells.

Lucy glanced over at Natsu, who'd been watching the fight intently. No doubt he was studying their moves, memorizing every tactic that all the wizards were using so that one day he would be able to defeat them, each of them, in combat like this. She felt her cheeks turn a little hot and had to look away from him. Her heart swelled for a moment.

In the corner of her eye she spotted Wendy with a ghost of a grin and just decided that ignoring Wendy would be best for now. And Natsu. But try as she might, she just could not ignore that Dragon Slayer.

* * *

Meldy stepped up and over the railing, sitting atop it and swinging her legs freely in the air. Cobra chuckled behind her.

"Not afraid you'll fall over?" he asked.

"Not at all," Meldy said. "It's much easier than leaning forward on these things, anyway. Plus it makes me feel a little bit closer to the action."

"I'm not really sure if this is the kind of action you want to be near," Sorano said. She folded her arms and watched the battle continue to unfold. Sting was showing some signs of fatigue while the other Guild Masters were perfectly pacing themselves.

Jellal swerved away from one of Jura's blows and set his sights directly on Makarov, using one of the spells he took from the old Fairy Tail wizard, Mystogan, to attack him. Makarov howled with laughter and rebounded it back at Jura, who in turn rebounded it to Bob, who managed to barely phase through it in time.

"It's like a symphony," Cobra said. "I can hear their thoughts just before they attack, how quickly they react, but how simple it is for all of them, even that kid, Sting."

"It sounds beautiful," Meldy said, her voice soft.

"It's honestly horrific for wizards below them," Cobra said. He stepped up, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Knowing there are wizards like these guys out here is pretty scary. But knowing that the strongest among them is our friend…well, that's something."

"You think Jellal is really the strongest among them?" Meldy asked.

"I can hear it," Cobra said. "His thoughts are more precise, his movements more fluid. All of what he's doing is taking up less magic than all the others." He gestured across the arena, to a battered Sting. "He may not be the strongest among them, but besides Jellal, he's the swiftest. You'd think Wizard Saints like Jura and Makarov would be quicker on the uptake, but they're slower just by a millisecond. And in battle, that's all it takes."

"Hey, Cobra, if you're gonna jabber like this why don't you go in the booth?" Racer asked, jabbing his finger toward where the announcers were.

Cobra barked a laugh, and even Meldy had to suppress a chuckle. She said, "Yeah, sure. I don't think the deep spooky voice of Cobra is going to inspire people to get invested in the games."

"Besides, I'm not nearly pretty enough for the spotlight," Cobra said. "And I wouldn't be able to hear things as well from all the way up there."

Meldy grinned. "Ah, so this _is_ a fight worth getting into, is it?"

"I mean that in terms of watching it," Cobra said. "I wouldn't want to actually get in a fight with any of these guys. Except maybe Bob. Guy kinda weirds me out."

"But he's so full of love!" Hoteye exclaimed.

"Indeed," Meldy said, still swinging her legs. She sighed.

"You're such a romanticist, Meldy," Cobra muttered.

She shrugged. "Times like these are hard to come by for people like us. We're at peace, Cobra. May as well soak it in while we can. Why not let thoughts of love wander around us?" She turned and grinned at him. To her surprise, he was blushing, but not for her, but because she caught him being empathetic.

"But that doesn't mean we can't enjoy a little competition," Meldy said. "After all, all's fair in love and war."

* * *

Sting flipped in the air and caught a stray beam of magic from Jellal in the leg, spinning him around before he touched the ground that erupted beneath him. He punched down at it and used it to propel himself forward, turning into a spiral and slamming into Jura's side. He knew by now what would happen next and made sure to stay free of his grasp.

He slid right into Goldmine, who clawed at him. Sting dodged, parried, then blocked another of his rapid fists. Goldmine, for being an old man, sure was adept at hand-to-hand combat. They collided fists. Sting raised his leg to dodged Goldmine's sweep then punched him square in the chest. Both were punched in the sides by Makarov's massive fists.

Sting slammed his hand along the ground, but felt another hand grasp his wrist as Bob slowly phased from beneath the arena.

"Seems I've caught myself a cute one," Bob said. "I think I'll fly away with him!"

He burst his wings up and they shot into the sky. Sting managed to wrench himself free and then Bob flung him at the ground. Sting saw, below, that Jellal charged up another Layered Magic Circle attack, this time, if he remembered correctly, the Five-Layer Magic circle.

Prefect.

Sting summoned magic to his left side but waited until all the magic circles were formed before shoving himself out of the way. The massive beam blasted up and then down, catching Bob directly. Sting hit the round rolling.

Bob squealed all the way up, and then back down, where he was caught by a leaping Ichiya and Nichiya before he could land in the stands.

"And another Guild Master is down and out!" Chapati exclaimed. "That just leaves."  
"The rest of us!" Goldmine exclaimed, charging Sting alone. Sting's eyes caught a glimpse of the battle of Wizard Saints before he had to refocus back on Goldmine. "And I'll show this pup what happens when you play with the big dogs!"

"Oh, I'm more than aware," Sting said, and vanished from Goldmine's field of vision.

He reappeared behind him, stunning the crowd, and stunning Goldmine, who had just enough reflex to block Sting's kick. Sting hesitated, just for a moment, to rejoin the other battle, but spun around instead and faced Goldmine, who used cloaking magic to hide himself.

Sting roared and blasted his aura around him, blinding anyone looking directly at him for a moment, but also allowing him to sense magic near him.

There!

The Dragon Slayer burst into the air, twisting his body around before he positioned himself behind Goldmine, who had just turned to face him. Sting punched down, using some of his aura to boost his power, and Goldmine slammed through the walls, out of the arena.

Sting landed and hesitated a moment before Goldmine clambered out, slow, holding his sides. He held his hand out and shot a white spark into the air.

"I've seen what I needed," Goldmine said. "This has been fun, but, I think I'll let these guys handle it from here. Good luck, pup. You're hanging with the Wizard Saints, now."

He grinned at Sting, and Sting held his hand out. "Thank you for a good fight, Master."  
Goldmine nodded and took Sting's hand. "I mean it. You're gonna need all the luck you can get."  
He then vanished again and Sting returned his attention to the three Wizard Saints all staring him down. The four now stood in a diamond formation. Sting approached, making equal distance between the four of them.

"Looks like we're allowed to get serious now that some of the collateral is out of the way," Makarov said.

Jellal nodded. "I've been meaning to show you the extent of my power, Jura."

"And Erza always speaks highly of you, Jellal," Makarov said.

"And yet you both forget," Jura said, nodding to Sting, who stopped walking. "That we are in the presence of a Dragon Slayer."

"Damn right," Sting said. "And the next time you forget, I'll make sure you regret it. You said we're getting serious, so let's make sure we put on a good show for these folks!"

Magic pulsed once from his body and with a roar his aura exploded around him, and white scales covered his torso and face. Sting roared, letting all of his magic loose from within him, and when his body settled, his aura crackled with immense magic power around him. Makarov intensified his own aura.

"So, this is it indeed," he said. "Dragon Force."

"Let's see how it stacks up against Wizard Saints, shall we?" Sting asked.

* * *

 **STING. MAKAROV. JELLAL. JURA.**

 **I'm so excited! I've had this four-way fight stuck in my head for so long and I'm so excited to bring it to life! Next time we'll get more of the action (obviously, can't miss that!) and maybe get some perspective on the Sabertooth end of things, to see what they've been up to, where Sting managed to get so strong! Plus we can't miss out on more Minerva and Rogue together, right? Right!**

 **And we're still just a few chapters away from the first one-on-one fight, so if you have any requests, be sure to send them my way!**

 **If you liked what you read here, be sure to check out my other story "Fairy Tail - New Era," which just wrapped it's sixth story arc!**


	6. Chapter 5 - Released Power

The stadium fell to a hush for a moment after Sting ignited his Dragon Force aura. Tension slowly became palpable. He'd taken things from one level to a whole other. Jura even seemed impressed by his sudden acts. Sting fell into his fighting stance. Makarov nodded his head. Jellal sparked his own aura round him, ensuring that Sting could understand the power that he held. Sting glanced for just a moment to Jura, the Iron Rock, who decided it best to give Sting a taste of his own magic power.

When he did, and when even the normal people in the audience could get a taste for the power on display, the stadium went berserk. Chapati Lola, the announcer, roared his excitement, and even Mister Yajima voiced some level of excitement for this. The three masters then looked to Makarov, who had his head bowed and eyes closed. Sting's body twitched with anticipation. Would Makarov be the one to make the first move?

He knew that they all suspected him to be the culprit of that. He'd made the serious error of moving before he was ready, and took a beating for it. He hadn't been able to land a single hit on Jura, Jellal, or Makarov before, and instead did the grunt work of helping take down Master Bob and Master Goldine. Jellal took out that bastard Banaboster in a single flick of his wrist.

There was a reason these were Wizard Saints, and a reason that none of them showed fear in their eyes when Sting went into Dragon Force. Dragon Slayers could only go so far, and Sting was near his power limit. Still, he had a few tricks up his sleeve.

His eyes locked with Rogue's and the two nodded. It wasn't as if the two had just been sitting around this past year—.

A massive fist almost knocked Sting into the air. Jura howled with laughter.

"That's the way, Makarov!"

Sting caught himself in the air. Makarov started to grow much larger. "Don't allow your mind to wander from the battle, young man! If so your enemy will take full advantage of you!"

"I ain't here to learn, old man!" Sting shouted back as the braced against the wall. "I'm here to fight!"

"Then you shall get your wish."

Sting hadn't even seen him move, but there he was: Jellal, right next to him, a golden aura basked around him. He punched Sting in the face and sent him flying across the stadium. Before Sting could hit the wall another rock barrier shot up and he crashed through it and tumbled to the ground.

He slammed his fist onto the ground to slow himself. Sting rubbed blood from the side of his mouth and got back to his feet. He swung his arms out and two slices of White Dragon Slayer magic cut across the arena. Jura merely flicked his wrist and two barriers broke those apart. "Come, Sting, you mustn't hold back," Jura said, and held a hand up, making another barrier that stopped Jellal in his tracks.

Sting snarled. "I just thought this was a friendly exhibition match, I didn't think you wanted things to get _that_ serious. If that's how you want, it, then, fine!"

He sprinted toward Jura, moving like light across the arena before slamming his foot into the ground and changing course instantly. Jellal and Makarov, locked momentarily in battle, became immediately distracted by him. Sting's instinct kicked in just as Jura's rock appeared before him, and it seemed his strategy was going to pay off…

" _Rock Mountain_!"

" _White Dragon Breath_!"

The massive statue formed in front of Jura, completely shielding the rest of the stadium, while Sting's spell slammed into it. Jura's spell negated his and sent a massive gale across the stadium. Still, Sting persisted.

He dove through the dust and found Jura, waiting for him there, a smile upon his face. Sting feinted with a punch and then went for a kick, which Jura ducked under. Jura swung his fist up, but Sting was just able to dodge, and used the momentum of Jura's raw power to flip over and land on his feet next to Jura.

Their fists collided and dissipated all of the dust around them.

"That's more like it, keep it up!" Jura exclaimed, and leapt up, avoiding a massive ball of ice that shot at Sting and caught him straight in the chest.

" _Rain of Light_!"

A massive magic circle formed in front of the much-larger Makarov and shot several rays of light toward Sting. Sting smiled and inhaled deeply, sucking in all the magic. Just as he finished it, though, Jura appeared over him.

"Fool," he muttered. " _Supreme King Rock Crush_!"

Sting couldn't move in time. The rubble from the boulders he'd just crushed shot up and crashed against Sting, blasting the air, and some of the magic, from him. Sting shot into the sky, and tried to turn but there was Jellal with another attack, sending Sting crashing to the ground.

He slid in a rut for a bit before finally coming to a stop, tasting blood from the side of his head trickling down the side of his face. He managed to get to his knees, but felt his arms trembling at his sides. He'd only used _one_ spell so far and he was already like this?

Makarov's magic finally dispersed throughout his system and he felt a surge within his body. His aura lightened up as well and he managed to get back to his feet. He wiped the blood away and roared, Weisslogia's voice speaking through his own.

"Hey, Wizard Saints!" he exclaimed. "Hope you're ready to feel the real power of a Dragon Slayer! This is for all my friends, for Sabertooth! _Dragon Slayer Secret Art! Holy Nova_!"

Sting blitzed from his spot, moving faster than before. Jellal moved to intercept him and Sting swung forward with a fist crackling with raw magic power. He punched up, slamming Jellal in the side. A pillar of light shot from where they connected and managed to consume Jura and Makarov in part of the blast as well.

The stadium roared in excitement, but Sting wasn't done; not even close. He swung out, dissipating the light and debris, and turned to block Jura's rock fist that shot across the stadium at him. He managed to side-step part of it as well as skim his arm along it, leaving a trail of magic on it. He clenched his fist and, when the rock fist got close to Makarov, Sting closed his fist and the entire structure exploded, catching Makarov once again.

"Very good, Sting!"

Sting glanced up and saw Jellal, there, now-cloakless and with a bruise growing on his shoulder. "Yes, this is the power that I remember, this is the true power of Dragon Force!"

"And there's way more where that came from, Jellal!"

Sting bounded off the rubble of the rock fist and shot in the air toward Jellal, who aimed an open palm at him, a magic circle forming between the two.

A magical barrier opened and deflected Sting's power back at him. Sting flipped end-over-end but Jellal did not stop his pursuit there.

" _True Heavenly Body Magic: Jui Leixing_!"

Nine lightning-swords twirled in the air, then all spiraled down toward Sting. Sting cupped his hand over his head and roared.

" _Holy Ray_!"

An equal amount of white streaks raced across the sky and collided with Jellal's swords, shattering them and shooting rays of light across the stadium, eventually bursting apart like fireworks.

Sting flipped and landed, spotting movement on his left and his right. He extended a hand out and managed to momentarily hold back Makarov's fist before it filled with lightning and Sting's body reacted naturally, dropping his arm and allowing Makarov's fist to connect with Sting's side. Knowing what was just to his left, Sting shouted and pulsed magic out, disrupting the ground Jura was going to use to form a spell beneath Sting.

He slid right up to Jura and moved to punch him across the face, but Jura slid out of his own cloak, forcing Sting to just punch through the nothing that was there. Sting turned, but not in time, and was hit by a force-palm attack. He slammed into the stone wall, stars and blood exploding from him.

"What a hit!" Chapati exclaimed. He'd been talking the entire time, but Sting had been too focused to listen on what he had to say.

He heard Jellal land near them. Sting peeled off the wall and fell on his back, but his eyes connected with Rogue, who was just above him. Rogue uncrossed his arms and held his arm out. Sting closed his eyes and felt his aura consume him once more, then black lightning sparked all around him.

"Thank you, Rogue," he said, and when his eyes opened, he saw bits of shadow arcing through his once pure-white aura. "For always being there to help."  
He swung his legs around and landed right on his feet again. He sighed and little wisps of shadow poured from his mouth. He felt a cold darkness overtake his left side. Sting reached up for his vest and tore it free from his chest.

"Is this even possible?" exclaimed Chapati. "Has Sting somehow manifested _two_ elemental forms _and_ maintains the power of Dragon Force?"

Sting stepped forward and saw, finally, reverence in the eyes of the Wizard Saints.

"My, my," Jura said. "I didn't think it possible."  
Sting smirked. "Then you shouldn't want to fight Natsu or Gajeel. They can do the same thing. You're just unlucky enough to fight me. White and Shadow magic are the ultimate blend of Dragon Slayer magics."

"Good," Jellal said. "I would want nothing less."

"Those two have been able to do that and haven't told me a thing about it?" Makarov asked. His eyebrow twitched in anger. "I'll certainly have to ask about that later."

"I can send you over to them right now, if you wish," Jura said.

"That's quite alright," Makarov said, cracking his knuckles some. "I'd like to continue fighting against a Dragon Slayer. It seems that I've really been missing out in my years."

"Then it would seem Jellal and I can get back to business as usual," Jura said. "But don't worry, Makarov, I'll make sure to check in on you soon."

"This is a battle royale, gentleman," Jellal said. "Try to treat it as such."

"Nobody said that crossfire was off the table," Makarov said. He gestured at Sting. "Come on then, boy. Show me this White Shaodw Dragon Force."  
Sting nodded and his twilight aura leapt up around him. "Alright then, old man. Just don't get pissed when I beat the crap outta you."

Makarov grinned and he slammed his fist into his open palm. "You must have forgotten your manners. It's unbecoming of young men to disrespect their elders!"

* * *

Lucy crossed her arms, trying to mimic Erza's serious expression as much as she could without breaking down into a fit of hysteria. The level of magic on display here was out of this world! Jellal and Jura moved with such speed, and yet such power, and Sting found a level _beyond_ Dragon Force?

And now Master was going to fight him one-on-one!

"I hate this!" Natsu exclaimed.

Lucy laid a hand on his shoulder, and that seemed to calm him a bit. "Natsu, I'm gonna need you to settle down before I absolutely lose it."

"Nah, I kinda hate this, too," Laxus said, finally moving toward the edge of the balcony, putting all of his focus on the fight. "I wish it was me down there getting to throw down with those guys."

"This is a battle that will be spoken of for generations," Erza said. "Who wouldn't want to be involved in this?"

"But don't forget, it's still just the opening match!" Mirajane said, her voice piping up to try and lift the mood.

Lucy nodded. "Yeah, like that's going to make me feel better."  
Natsu grinned. "Sure makes me feel better. Sting's still just a Dragon Slayer, like Rogue." His eyes moved to the Sabertooth booth. "Which means I might be able to test my own abilities against Rogue."

"Gosh, Natsu, I didn't even know you had more abilities to offer," Wendy said. She chuckled. "I just hope I won't have to see them!"  
Lucy patted Wendy on the shoulder. "Nah, I think the people throwing this together would be smart enough not to have us fighting each other. Wouldn't be right."

Wendy sighed, relief evident all over her face. "Yeah, that's kinda what I'm hoping for."

A massive gust of wind blew into the booth, knocking Lucy's hair into a tizzy. She slammed her head atop her forehead. She sighed, but everyone around her still seemed a bit silent. Wendy's face was also quite red.

"What?" she asked.

"Lucy, your top…you should really pull it down," Mirajane said behind her hand, trying to hold back her chuckle.

Lucy raised an eyebrow, and looked down. Her shirt had somehow flown up and folded itself over, exposing her bra and cleavage to all of Fiore. She yelped and pulled her shirt down, then slinked closer to the balcony, hiding herself.

"Can this fight just be over, yet?" she asked.

"No way!" Natsu exclaimed. "Much as I wanna be out there, it's still awesome to see!"

Lucy grimaced, but, the passion in his face made her feel otherwise. She felt her chest tighten when she looked into the Dragon Slayer's eyes, brimming with the same flames that powered his magic, his soul. He cheered on with fervent passion for Master Makarov, and it brought Lucy to her feet. She stood next to Natsu, close enough for their shoulders to be touching and for her to feel the heat radiating off his body, and cheered on as well!

They both lowered their hands and their hands connected, but rather than make anything of it immediately, Natsu took Lucy's hand in his own and jerked them in the air and called out for Makarov, showing Lucy's guild mark off. Still, she couldn't help but blush at Natsu holding her hand, and holding her so close to him.

"Let's go, Gramps!" Natsu exclaimed, as Sting and Makarov's fists collided.

* * *

Sting buffeted back from the force of Makarov's punch and spun around to block Makarov's next attack, a massive ball of fire and ice that would have destroyed any other wizard. Sting sent it flying up into the air where it exploded in a brilliant dazzle of light. He vanished, moving with great speed down toward Makarov, who had grown into his full giant size.

He swung his arms around and Sting flew between them, going straight for Makarov's chest. Makarov flicked his wrists and an ethereal pillar appeared there, blocking Sting's fist.

Makarov brought his fists in close, forcing Sting to drop to the ground. " _Maximum Defense Seal: Three Pillar Gods_!"

Two more ethereal pillars appared and almost slammed Sting from beneath. Sting shot back, eyes scanning for any possible weakness in the attack. His feet skirted the ground and he used all the power in his legs to leap into the air, holding his hands together at his side. He would just need to break through it, then!

" _White Shadow Dragon's Blast_!"

He thrust his arms forward and the twilight blasted drilled toward Makarov. The three pillars swarmed in front of him and at first deflected Sting's attack down at Jellal and Jura, and then just absorbed it. The pillars did crack, though, forcing Makarov to actively grunt in either frustration or tiredness. Sting blasted forward toward the pillars, seizing his opportunity. Just before he hit them, he sent a blast to his side and moved into view with Makarov, who must've been anticipating the attack.

He instantly shrunk down and Sting's attack missed by a mile. Sting plummeted toward Makarov, who had more than enough time to form three magic circles, and then used their power instantly against Sting:

A stream of fire, a gale of wind, and a hailstorm all blasted into the sky toward Sting. Sting swung his arms to the side and swirled around, surrounding himself in aura and managing to dissipate all but the hailstorm. Some pelts of hail still knocked against him.

He hit the ground and swept his legs around, but Makarov was no longer there. Instead, he was in the air, flying, and turning his two arms giant-sized. Gravity then kicked in and Makarov fell toward Sting. Sting was just fast enough to dodge one, but was hit across the chest by another fist.

Sting slid along the ground, slamming his foot and pivoting around, using the momentum to his advantage as he cast, " _White Shadow Dragon's Blast_!" once again, although this time with much less power as he only used the one hand.

Makarov swiped his arm and batted it aside, but left himself wide open. Sting moved faster than the eye could track again and appeared in front of Makarov's growing form before Makarov could react.

" _White Dragon's Claw_!"

He swiped and the claw of magic slammed against Makarov's chest. Jura, from somewhere, shouted a spell and a pillar kept Makarov from colliding with the stadium. Sting swung around and was instantly hit in the chest by Jellal's spell.

Sting rode it all the way to the ground, where he batted the beam down and coated himself in debris for a moment before Makarov and Jura both appeared in front of him. Sting's body locked, then, because of his Dragon Force and his draconic instincts, reacted.

" _White Dragon Roar_!"

Jura took the blast head-on, shoving Makarov aside. Makarov stopped when he slammed a massive foot in the ground, then used the momentum to shoot toward Sting like a bullet. Sting punched out but Makarov used his smaller form to pivot off of Sting's arm and reappear over Sting.

"It's over, kid!" Makarov exclaimed, and opened his mouth to cast another spell when,

" _True Heavenly Body Magic: Pleiades_!"

Makarov and Sting both moved too slow, and Sting felt three rays of light ram against him while Makarov took five, though was able to at least fall into a defensive position. Sting blasted against the back wall whereas Makarov was sent flying toward one of the statues at the top of the stadium.

Jellal gave Sting no reprieve, but thankfully, Sting needed none. Jellal landed in front of Sting and shattered the wall next to Sting, but Sting ducked out of the way and rammed his fist into Jellal's gut and knocked him back a few feet. Sting leapt back and checked over his shoulder, where Makarov was plastered against the back wall.

A moment passed and nothing happened. The stadium also fell silent. Sting used the moment to finally catch his breath.

Makarov's final attack replayed over in his head, again and again. He had him. Sting was about to be wiped out. Sting balled his hands into fists. Damn. He'd been careless.

Jura finally joined Jellal and Sting in looking to Makarov, who cast a white spark into the air. He conceded. Sting sighed and took a few steps back, gaining room between his two opponents. Jura nodded to him.

"Wise," Jura said.

"Let's end this before we cause anymore unnecessary damage, gentlemen," Jellal said.

Sting rolled his shoulders back and unleased more aura. "Yeah, sounds good to me."

* * *

Rogue uncrossed his arms and leaned forward, watching Sting barely stand. He snarled. The White Dragon Slayer was only pretending to himself and his opponents that he had a lot of magic left, but he had to know, somewhere, that he was on his last leg. Dragon Force was often a last minute move, but combining with Rogue's own dragon element?

"So, were you planning on telling any of us about Sting's power?" Minerva asked.

She leaned close to Rogue. She smelled lovely that day, despite having to run around and sweat in the Sky Labyrinth. Rogue summoned a surprising lump in his throat and rested a hand upon Frosch's head, who giddily cheered on Sting.

"Once he felt it right," Rogue said. "Though to be honest I'd only seen him access White Shadow Dragon Force a few times in our training."

Minerva nodded. "It'd almost forgotten about that. You boys went off for near a full-year."

Rogue closed his eyes. A few memories flashed across his vision. He and Sting travelled across Fiore, together with Lector and Frosch, and aided in the rebuilding efforts. Anywhere that Acnologia had been or attacked they were there, ensuring that villages, towns, and cities could be rebuilt to their best possible form. Along the way they spared no time training, gaining power that they hoped could rival Natsu.

Sting put in almost all of his waking hours went not aiding in relief efforts to train, even when Rogue was not available as a sparring partner. He partly worried that the gap between himself and his guildmates, who had to look to him as a master, was too small, and partly worried, as they all did, of another invasion of sorts.

And so he trained, rigorously, shattering his body and sometimes his soul to attain this level beyond Dragon Force. He offered for Rogue to consume his own White Dragon Slayer magic and attain Shadow White Dragon Force, but Rogue refuted it. He was perfectly content with his magic, wanting to perfectly master Shadow Dragon Slayer magic before moving to something else. If their battle against the Spriggan 12 showed them anything, it was that they were far from where they could be as wizards.

Sting, though, showed the world where they truly stood. Here, in this battle, he could put the real power of Sabertooth and of the Dragon Slayers on full display.

"You two must have really pushed yourself, then," Minerva said, snapping Rogue back to reality. Her voice could do that to him.

Rogue nodded. "Ah, yes, indeed." He let a small grin touch his lips. "It was quite a relief to get to come home."

Minerva turned to face him. Her sharp eyes caught his and for a moment he forgot how to breath. She curled her tight lips into a smile, a devilish smile that made Rogue nearly blush. He forced himself to look away.

"It was a relief to see you," she said, her voice soft.

Rogue just folded his arms again. "You too, milady."

"Please, Rogue," Minerva said. She stood up straight and nudged him with her elbow. "I want you to call me Minerva."

"Of course," Rogue said. "Minerva."

The word sang off his lips, feeling right, proper, better than anything he'd said in a long time.

Minerva then laced her arm through his. "Now come, we must cheer our Guild Master on!"

Rogue stumbled for words, but it seemed that even Minerva blushed. She looked hesitantly from Rogue to the battlefield, and then cheered on for Sting.

"Come on, Sting!" he shouted.

* * *

Sting closed his eyes. Rogue. He heard the man's voice. Power swelled within and without him again. His aura expanded momentarily before sucking into his two fists. He shot his eyes open and blasted two rays of magic at Jura and Jellal, who did everything they could just to deflect it.

He leapt between them, forcing into the middle of the triangle. Sting ducked beneath Jura's punch and blocked Jella's spell before it could be unleashed from a magic circle. He slammed the ground with magic, disrupting the ground again and stopping Jura from summoning another rock formation. Jellal's bright fist shot through the debris and Sting caught it with his hand. Jellal used magic to fill his hand and pushed forward, but Sting leaned back and allowed Jellal to overextend and slam his fist into Jura's chest.

The cloud of debris exploded out. Sting and Jellal's fists met once again, sending three massive BOOMs across the stadium. Jellal shoved himself away, gaining a great amount of distance between the two.

"Sting!" Jura exclaimed, and ripped Sting's attention from Jellal.

Nothing where Jura was standing…

Sting's eyes widened but he was too slow. " _Rock Avalanche_!" Jura's voice boomed before scores of boulders and rocks slammed Sting in the side.

" _White Dragon Claw_!"

Sting swiped through and disintegrated several of the rocks but those that collided with him still left their mark.

Jura slammed his hands together and the Rock Formation appeared again. It raised its hands to the sky and two massive balls of raw magic power formed there, as if all the ethernano from the sky concentrated in just that attack. Even Jellal had to move out of the way of it.

Sting braced himself, then sprinted for the Rock Formation. The massive statue cast one ball at Sting and another at Jellal, who was already in the sky. The ball would've hit Jellal if he didn't punch down at it and sacrifice loads of magic power to just knock it away. Sting, though, shared a much different fate.

He stopped short, knowing he couldn't avoid it. Instead, he tried to suck in the raw ethernano. It worked for about two seconds before the force of the attack overwhelmed him. The power rippled and exploded all around him. Sting soared back, crashing into the back wall and only falling out of it from the knock-back against the wall.

His head touched the ground and he felt blood spilling from his lips and maybe from his forehead, too. Cuts and bruises formed along his bare back and arms. A tear slid down his face.

"Come…on….get up!" Sting shouted. " _Get up you bastard_!"

His voice carried over the entire stadium, as did his roar. His white aura filled the battlefield, capturing Jura and Jellal's attention.

"This is it, this is going to end it!" Sting shouted. "This is the power of Sabertooth, this is the power to beat a God of Ishgar!"

He let his magic explode around him before he used it as a propulsion toward Jellal and Jura.

Jellal quickly slammed his hands together and Sting saw, in the sky where Jellal had been flying, seven magic circles.

"No, not this!" Jura exclaimed.

" _True Heavenly Body Magic: Grand Chariot_!"

" _White Shadow Dragon Rough Silk_!"

" _Rumbling Mt. Fuji_!"

Three titanic streams of light erupted from their spellcaster's magic circles and shot across the clear blue sky toward one another. When they collided, and explosion unlike any other in the history of Fiore, or all of Ishgar, rocked across the stadium of Dormus Flau.

Sting slammed his feet in the ground and poured all the magic he had ever attained into his attack. He roared, sensing Weisslogia's voice once again, feeling the true power of a dragon. He locked his arms forward and felt rippling tidal waves of magic flow from without his soul and into his attack.

Rainbows and translucent lights shot everywhere, capturing the stadium in a beautiful array of Borealis, created from the pure magic on display. The sky changed colors every few seconds while the ground beneath and within the stadium shook.

Sting put one last push into it before the magics finally collapsed on one another and, for a brief moment, there was quiet before…

 _KRA-THOOM_!

The sound of a thousand thunderbolts rocked the stadium, momentarily deafening the ground. The bright lights also blinded the entire crowd for a moment before they too dimmed.

* * *

Nobody moved on the stadium below. Hisui's heart seized. After an attack like that, could it be possible for anyone, even Acnologia, to survive that? Her breath finally slowed down a bit and she raised a tender hand to her chest.

She stepped forward, trying to spot any signs of movement. Nobody in the stadium was moving, talking, and, she would believe, breathing. She took one more step toward the edge of her balcony.

Finally, something moved. The dust cloud swirled, swirled, and then shot into the air, revealing the winner below.

Hisui grinned and before everyone in the crowd could make a noise, Hisui exclaimed, "And there he stands: Jellal Fernandes, our winner!"

And indeed, there he stood: beaten, bruised, and with both of his knees bent about to collapse. Jellal stepped back and braced against the wall he'd no doubt been shoved against, closing his eyes and probably falling unconscious. Hisui surveyed the rest of the stadium. Sting was deep in a rut, unconscious and Jura was braced on a single knee, his hands resting against the ground, but it was Jellal show remained on his feet, and Jellal the only one capable of moving.

Everyone, including the other guilds, cheered and shouted in their excitement. Hisui couldn't blame them at all.

"What a magnificent display of magic, indeed!" she exclaimed. She beamed to the crowd. She appeared over them, in a holographic lacrima. Her face was red from her heavy breathing. She tried to hide it, but, it was quite difficult. "Truly there are no greater guild masters in all of Ishgar! Thank you all for your participation, and I hope you're all just as excited as I am for the Dragon Festival to get kicked off, especially after the display we just witnessed!"

She lowered her hands and the volume around the stadium dwindled. "Thank you. Now, please, go out into town and enjoy all the festivities we have to offer! Guild wizards, please do not fret, we shall our best healers tend to your masters immediately. We wouldn't want them missing out on much either, trust me.

"And don't forget, wizards, to be at your designated balconies by eight tomorrow morning! Tomorrow, the games shall truly begin, and they shall be one you never forget! Champions shall be crowned, magic shall be tested, and I promise you, this year we shall show the world what it means to be a wizard of Fiore!"

* * *

 **PHEW. Anyone else exhausted? Cuz I know I am.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed that little skirmish! I promise we won't have such an insane fight next chapter, so we can relax just a little bit. We'll probably have a couple chapters of cool-down to catch up with everyone before the first days' events. After all, it would seem that a few people would like to spend a little alone time together, don't you think? *wink-wink***

 **Anyway, if you liked this, please be sure to check out my other _Fairy Tail_ fic, _Fairy Tail - New Era_ , which will be starting it's next (seventh) arc very soon! And leave your thoughts on the story below, I'd love to hear what you think of the fight or of how things are going so far! **


	7. Chapter 6 - Chapati's Recommendations

Rogue stood at the foot of Sting's bed while his best friend and Guild Master patted Lector's head, repeatedly telling the Exceed that he was okay, that he felt completely fine. The nurse's eye next to him twitched as he just ignored the blatant injuries: bruised rubs, cracked collarbone, and the swollen wrist that, apparently, would've shattered if they didn't get to her sooner.

Minerva shifted where she stood, capturing Lector's attention. Frosch hopped from Rogue's shoulder to hers, and she held the Exceed steady so it wouldn't fall.

"I think you should relax a bit, Sting, you've definitely earned your rest," Minerva said. "You did incredible out there."

"It was truly remarkable," Rogue nodded. "You've done an honor to the Dragon Slayers, and to Sabertooth."

"Lighten up," Sting said. "You would've done just as well as me, Rogue."

Rogue shrugged. No need to show an ego in front of Minerva. She laid a hand on his shoulder, and Frosch took the opportunity to dangle from it like a little monkey.

"Indeed, possibly better," Minerva said. She smiled at Rogue, who could barely meet her gaze. Her eyes. So beautiful.

"I doubt it," Sting said, folding his arms behind his back. He immediately regretted it, and the nurse smacked him on the head with the thick hospital bill.

"I told you not to move, fool!" she exclaimed.

She looked familiar, for some reason. She had pink hair and wrinkly skin. Where had Rogue seen her before?

"Alright, alright, geez," Sting muttered.

"Listen lady, if you hurt my man Sting like that again, it'll be you and me that go a few rounds!" Lector exclaimed, putting up kitty-fisticuffs.

"Oh yeah? I eat cats like you for breakfast!"

"Easy now," Minerva said, holding her hands up. Frosch almost slipped but caught Minerva's leg and crawled back up. Minerva patted Frosch's head.

"Sorry milady," Lector murmured.

The nurse cleared her throat. "You'll likely be bedridden at least through the first set of games tomorrow. We'll make sure to bring in a viewing orb for you and your neighbors."

Sting grinned. "So, I was able to make those two go to the hospital, eh?"

"Jellal is already gone, he was fully recovered by the time you were waking up," Minerva said, and Sting deflated. "Jura has decided to remain here, to see his injuries through."

"And to check on you."

Rogue stepped aside, folding his arms beneath a black clock as Jura stepped in. He had to use a crutch to walk and had bandages wrapped around his torso.

"I wanted to ensure your recovery as well, young man," Iron Rock Jura said. "I wish to protect the next generation of wizards, and if they are as strong as you then we have nothing to fear."

Sting nodded. "Thank you. It means a lot from a Wizard Saint."

"But don't allow confidence to get the better of you," Jura said. He held a hand, still radiating with magic power, up. He balled it into a fist. "You've seen my power, but not my power when I'm angry. Nor have you see those who are my superior."

Nobody moved, but Sting managed to break the silence with a chuckle. "Well, looks like my ceiling just got a lot higher!" He sneered at Jura. "I'll take that as a challenge, old man."

"Only if you train enough," Jura said. "Then we can go all out."

"I wouldn't want it any other way," Sting said.

"Good," Jura said. "Then rest. Recover your strength, and enjoy the rest of the games." He turned away, then muttered, just so Rogue could hear him, "There's time yet for the two of you to catch up."

Rogue raised an eyebrow. He looked over his shoulder to Sting, who was too caught up with Lector. Rogue followed the limping Wizard Saint, stopping as he reached his bed across the way. Jura had three vases of flowers and several Get Well balloons already.

"Excuse me," Rogue said.

"I meant what I said." Jura sat on his bed. "You Dragon Slayers are nothing to be messed with. Now that I've seen your potential, I should be fearing what could come. But I've also seen your grit, your determination, and your love for one another. It is only through those things that you can ever hope to defeat me." Jura leaned back in his bed and gestured at where Sting was. "Love is our greatest power, Shadow Dragon Slayer."

Rogue turned, and saw Minerva looking his way, then hastily looked back to Sting, laughing at some joke he or Lector made.

"Indeed," Rogue said. "Thank you, Jura."

"Good luck, Rogue," Jura said. "The daughter of Jiemma should not be treated as anything other than precious."

Rogue grinned and didn't hide it behind shadow. "I'm well aware of that already."

He strode back across the room, letting Jura recover his strength. The door to the hospital then burst open, and a little man with a funny head of hair stood in the light that poured in from the outside.

"Chapati Lola?" Minerva muttered. "What's the announcer doing here?"

Chapati strolled across the room, then, when he noticed Sting, walked a little faster. He looked Sting over once, then back to Minerva and Rogue.

"Will he be okay?" he asked. His voice seemed so different when he didn't have to project into a microphone.

"Quite," Minerva said. "He'll be able to lead us through these games yet."

"Yeah, lead us to victory," Sting said.

"Not in this condition," the nurse said. She glanced to Minerva and Rogue. "I think it best that we give him a little space to continue relaxing. Food shall be sent to you shortly."

"Can I stay with him?" Lector asked.

"And I wanna stay with Lector," Frosch said.

"Only if you don't cause any trouble," the nurse said. She sighed. "But you Exceeds never would leave your Dragon Slayers anyway, now would you?"

"Nope," Frosch said, and hoped atop Sting to give him a hug.

Chapati snapped his fingers. "Then may I suggest something? There's a lovely new restaurant in town that you absolutely have to check out."

He tugged at Minerva's dress and Rogue's robes. "Come!"

* * *

The plain blue sky consumed the ceiling of Crocus. There were no clouds, save for the small wisps of smoke rising from the various vendors hard at work finishing off their lunch hours and preparing for the dinner rush.

Erza had her hands at her side and indecisiveness on the brain. Her team left her a while back after Natsu realized that he didn't have any money…well, Gray and Lucy left her, anyway. Cana was off to the bar, trying to prep her body in case Bacchus challenged her to a drinking challenge again. Gajeel went off with Levy after the Guild Master Battle Royale concluded, alongside Panther Lily. They wanted to see the city.

The rest of Fairy Tail hung out around their building and in the plaza that their building was in. Some of the older men were keen on just hanging out and having a drink while some of the younger folk went out to explore. Laxus and Mira, Erza knew for certain, had gone out to find a small place to just sit and chat and get away from everything. At least, that's what Laxus said they were doing. Mira probably hoped they were on a date.

Erza's had fell to the sword at her side. She gripped its hilt, then sent it away with her magic. No need for it here. Several people in the crowd gaped and gawked at her in some sort of reverence. She just smiled and waved to them.

A few young city folk came running up to her and asked for her autograph, which she graciously gave. She scribbled it near an article she'd done recently for Jason of _Sorcerer's Weekly,_ asking about what it was like to be the first official wizard that was not a Dragon Slayer to slay a dragon in several centuries. She gave him the answer that they'd wanted, not one that told anything about the dragon actually being her mother.

A few small petals and the smells of barbecue wafted through Crocus, carrying Erza through the city, taking her mind from such dark thoughts.

Part of her wished she had her guildmates with her, but she'd spent much of the last year with them helping to rebuild Fiore or just taking other odd jobs that it was nice to get away. Another part of her, a big part of her, hoped that she would just happen to bump into Jellal. This, though, seemed quite unlikely. Jellal never just showed up somewhere on accident.

Not to mention that he'd been wounded pretty bad following that blast. She still felt shivers after witnessing it. Could she have taken on something like that? The fact that those three generated so much raw magic power was worrisome, but, they were all her good friends and she trusted them to never abuse that power. Yes. Jellal. Her good friend.

She blushed and shook her head. He'd probably be with Crime Sorciere, anyway. He'd be with Meldy and Sorano, two of the most beautiful women in Fiore.

Erza slapped her cheeks. "Enough!"

Everyone on the street stopped and looked at her for a moment, then went about their business. She sighed, Jellal fading from her mind. Yes, it would be nice to catch up with him, and try and get some details on how he was able to convince Hisui to allow them to join in on the games. Yes, they were heroes who stood against the Spriggan 12, but it wasn't as if they were all that decorated in the time since then.

She scratched her nose and looked around. A other wizards were around, but most of them were from guilds that hadn't qualified. She spotted Beth Vanderwood and Arana Webb of Mermaid Heel and smiled at them. They smiled back and waved, but not in an inviting manner. Erza returned her attention to the rest of the road.

She stopped, though, when she felt a presence. No, she didn't _feel_ this presence…she _smelled_ it. That scent…that odd mixture of scents…

"Erza!"

That voice filled her. It reached into her soul and claimed it, swelling her with the utmost feeling of unadulterated, absolute…

Dread.

"Ichiya," she muttered. She looked around, but could not see the tiny man anywhere. "No."

She hadn't even thought of a way to shake him during the games. He'd clung to her so much in all of their other encounters. He seemed to have her, just her, on his mind…or, at least, when he wasn't thinking of himself or his guild.

Where was he? Erza braced herself. She could smell his parfume, but couldn't pin it down anywhere. Was this some sort of new devious magic he'd concocted just to through her off? She whipped her head around and finally tagged a direction the scent came in. South!

Erza summoned magic to her feet. "So I'll head north!"

Everyone looked confused to her again, but their confusion was quickly wiped away when Erza blasted away from where she stood and landed atop a rooftop, dashing across it to another rooftop. Ichiya was quick, but not as fast as Erza. Not when she knew she had to get away.

She leapt off another roof, landing with a roll on another rooftop several blocks away. She slid to a halt, sniffing the air once more. More than anytime in her life, she desperately wished she had the nose of a Dragon Slayer. Her eyes darted about. The scent was still there, very faint.

A moment of hesitation overcame her. Would he see this as some twisted game of hard-to-get? Had he seen her, would he pursue?

The scent strengthened and Erza's stomach clenched. She turned to leave and almost ran right into a man she hadn't even seen there a moment before.

"Oh, excuse me!" she exclaimed. She raised an eyebrow, holding the man over the edge, right before he could fall over. "Chapati Lola?"

"Erza, my, you scared me half to death!" Chapati exclaimed. "Where are you off to in such a rush?"

"Oh, nowhere in particular," she said, blushing. The scent became stronger. "Just, you know, out for a bit of a…run."  
Chapati nodded, slow. "Right. Well, listen, if you're not in too big a hurry, there's this really nice place I think you should check out."

"Is it an open place, or more enclosed?" she asked, fast.

Chapati blinked twice. "Um…open, I suppose."

"Lots of tables, rooms?"

"Yes."

Erza nodded. She could stake Ichiya out if she had more room to work with. "Then tell me where this place is."

* * *

Meldy swung her legs absentmindedly over the side of the railing, over the second story coffeehouse where she, Jellal, Cobra, Laxus, and Mira all sat. She sat facing them, her hands braced on the railing. Cobra took a sip of his tea, sizing Laxus up once again. Jellal sat across from the two of them, next to Mirajane.

"Unfortunately," Jellal said with a shrug. "We still haven't heard from him yet."  
Cobra nodded. "Though to be fair, he's probably still off traveling, trying to find himself. Might still be a little shaken up after the whole Tartaros thing."

"Kyoka was quite the fearsome demon," Mira said, without a hint of irony. Meldy hardly held in her giggle.

"Still, I don't remember any of those Grimoire guys being any good in the head," Laxus said, then nearly choked on his coffee when he realized Meldy sat right there. "Oh, sorry."  
"From what I hear, you only remember Master Hades, so as far as I'm concerned, you think I'm perfectly rational," Meldy said, purposefully taking her hand off the railing. Her skirt, though, started to slip and she began to fall back.

Cobra shot his arm out and caught her leg. She readjusted herself, laughing. Laxus just nodded. Mirajane joined in the laughter too, though.

She seemed like a sweet woman, and not someone that absorbed the Nine Demon Gates of Tartaros. Laxus, too, didn't seem all that bad. Just a bit to himself. Though, to be fair, Jellal was likely the same way.

She just couldn't believe he'd been the one to suggest the three of them sit with Mira and Laxus. He was normally against these sorts of things unless it involved Erza to some capacity. Cobra was okay with it too, though Meldy took it more to be that the wanted to see how he stacked up against another Second Generation Dragon Slayer. Cobra voiced his disappointment when he found out he wouldn't be able to fight either Sting or Laxus, but a rematch against Natsu did excite him a bit.

Meldy just hoped she didn't have to see too much action. In a fight she was hardly any good, but in a battle she could be of good use. The struggle against Acnologia informed her of that much, anyway.

"So is the entire guild here?" Jellal asked.

Mirajane nodded. "Yup. Master didn't issue a command or anything, he just thought it'd be nice for everyone to come out."

"Indeed, it's always good to have a ton of support," Jellal said.

Mirajane nodded. "You have support too, Jellal. Definitely from Fairy Tail, I can tell you that much."

"Seems Hisui's okay with you too," Laxus said.

"She tolerates," Cobra said with a smirk.

"She only likes Jellal because she thinks he's cute," Meldy said.

Jellal waved her off. "That's not true. I think she just wants to keep an eye on us."

"She doesn't trust you?"

"She wants to use us, likely," Jellal said. "I informed her of when Meldy, Ultear, and I watched over the Eclipse events. How we came to Fiore's help when was necessary. It seems she took a shine to that, and may look for our furthered support of the crown."

"Is your guild officially sanctioned?" Laxus asked.

"For the purposes of the games," Jellal said, and Cobra shifted uncomfortably. Meldy shrugged as well.

"There's no alternative?" Mira asked.

"Not at the moment," Jellal said. "We're still trying to find our place, and besides, expanding our roster may compromise our position."

Mira beamed and nodded. "Indeed. There's no worse thing for a guild than that."

"Besides disbanding," Cobra said.

Before Laxus could spat anything back, Mira said, "But we held our values, and here we are today."

"Was talking a bit more general, but yeah," Cobra said. "Almost forgot you guys disbanded, actually. Was kinda weird not hearing about Fairy Tail on the news all the time. Back when I was with the Seis that's all we would hear about. Wasn't much of a shock when you guys came after us, just a shock you came with others."

"Laxus wasn't even a part of Fairy Tail back then," Mira said with a smile.

Jellal chuckled. "That so?"

"Otherwise that Nirvana mess never would've happened, and I would've stopped that prick Hades before he even got on our island," Laxus said, folding his arms.

"I'm sure," Mira said, gently patting his arm.

"Incredible," Meldy said. "Fairy Tail's been through way more than Ultear or Jellal ever told me."

"Well that's because Jellal gets only a few minutes alone with Erza at a time, isn't that right?" Mira asked, and finally, Jellal was the one who became flustered.

Meldy hardly suppressed her smile. Mira and Erza, as she recalled Jellal saying, were as close as any two girls could get. They stood up for one another and fought against one another all the time, but all in good fun. Mira definitely knew all about the thing between Jellal and Erza, and how dead in the water it remained at all times. She'd seen this sort of thing between herself and Ultear, where Meldy would be unsure of something and Ultear would either force the issue or set it aside and then bring it up as casual as possible.

Cobra burst out into laughter. "Jellal, your thoughts are an absolute mess right now!"

"And I bet they're all about Erza," Mira said.

Jellal's eyebrow twitched. "If I wanted to be pestered I would have sought out Natsu and Lucy," Jellal growled.

"We Fairies are more alike than you think," Mira said.

"Ah, do my eyes deceive me?"

Meldy looked beyond the table to a wild-haired Chapati Lola approaching them from the shop. Jellal quickly composed himself and sat up, folding his hands together.

"Ah, the announcer," Cobra said. "I thought I heard you downstairs."

"But I didn't say anything until just now," Chapati said.

"Your thoughts are as loud as you are in the stadium," Cobra said. "Also you walk funny."

Chapati just smiled and nodded. "But boy am I glad to catch up with you. Such a great hodge-podge of wizards, too!"

"Were you looking for us?" Meldy asked.

Chapati shrugged. "No, I just had some information to spread around. There's this wonderful new place downtown that I think everyone should check out."

Jellal shook his head. "I'm fine here, thank you."

"I'd love to go see it," Meldy said, hopping off the railing. "Erik?"

Cobra shrugged. "Sure, why not? Is it expensive?"

"Free to all participating wizards," Chapati said with a small grin.

"Your thoughts betray you, but alright," Cobra said. He patted Chapati on the head. "Come on, Meldy."

"Later guys," Meldy said, smiling at the three wizards. "Oh, and Mira, if you happen to see Gray, tell him I wanted to see him later if he can. By the fountain, maybe just after sunset?"

"I'll be sure to pass on the message," Mira said.

Meldy beamed and jogged after Cobra, who stuffed his hands in his pocket and followed a silly-walking Chapati.

* * *

Lucy bent over and sighed. She felt some beads of sweat dripping down the sides of her face. Her chest sagged when she leaned back up.

"Natsu, can we be done now?" she asked. Her legs were weak, trembling, from all that he had her doing.

"No way!" he exclaimed. "We gotta keep going!"  
She wiped the sweat from her brow. "You exhaust me, you know that?"

"Yeah, but, if you liked it you would've stopped by now, right?"

Lucy's mouth formed a thin, straight line. She glared at him. "Sometimes I just can't even stand to be around you."

"Then sit," Natsu said.

Lucy gave him a fake eyebrow raise then punched the backside of his head. "You idiot!"

Natsu reeled back. "Ow! That hurt!"

Lucy's nostrils flared. She braced a hand on his back and dusted him off a bit. His body was so warm, even through his shirt.

Well, then again, hers was probably pretty warm, too, even in the shaded trees of one of Crocus's parks. They stood next to each other, Lucy's other hand on her hip.

Lucy kept her hand on his back just a second too long, a second more that she liked but that she was given, and quickly yanked her hand away, casually placing it behind her back. She eyed him again. Natsu had a dumb, goofy grin on his face from all the running around they'd done. He claimed that they didn't get enough time to walk around Crocus last time and they had to spend all their time running around it, seeing all they could!

Happy, who sat on a tree branch above them, lazily swung his legs around. He rested atop Natsu's shoulders for most of the sprint, while Lucy struggled to keep up. She may have a lot of magic power, but physical power? She and Capricorn had a bit of work to do in that area, still.

"Is there anything else that we _have_ to see or can we take a breather?" Lucy asked.

Natsu frowned. "What do you think this is?"

Her mouth hung open. "The end. I thought this was the end!"

"No way!" he exclaimed. "We totally have a bunch more stuff—!"

Natsu's body instantly turned to purple ice. Happy's mouth dropped and Lucy froze as well. Her finger, trembling, touched the ice. Frigid, freezing cold, just like the ice from the Sun Village. She looked around.

"Who's there?" she asked. "Who…oh."

She rolled her eyes at Gray, who put a finger to his lips, shushing her.

"They're currently playing a game of tag."

Lucy almost jumped out of her skin. From out of nowhere, Juvia seemingly just manifested herself. She had her hands folded behind her back, and she'd changed into a more casual attire: a blue crop-top with black shorts and flip-flops. She had her hair down, too, a nice look for her. Though, for Lucy's taste, she showed a bit too much in the cleavage department…probably just enough for her to think Gray liked it, though. Jeez.

Another voice came in from above, "So, Natsu's it, right?"

From the sky, this time that Lucy could see, Wendy dropped in, landing gently on the grass on the opposite side of Natsu.

"When did you guys have time to set this up?" Lucy asked.

"During dinner," Gray said. "We were going to invite you, but, you were really caught up with everyone else."

"And Jellal," Juvia said, nudging Lucy.

"Oh my gosh, guys, it was nothing," Lucy said. "She was just escorting me to the dessert table."

"Who needs an escort to the dessert table?" Happy asked. "Sounds like he took you to the _love_ table, Lucy. Oh! I wonder what'll happen if we tell Erza?"

Lucy yanked Happy down by the tail and dangled the giggling blue cat in front of her. "I will make it my personal mission in life that if Erza comes after me for the non-thing that is going on with me and Jellal that you never eat fish again."

All the color in Happy's face quickly washed away and he vigoriously nodded his head, though quickly became dizzy from the sudden rush of blood into his noggin. Lucy dropped him and he slumped against the tree.

"I appreciate the thought, but I think I'll let you guys play tag," Lucy said. "Juvia, are you playing?"

"It wouldn't be fair," Juvia said with a shrug. "I could just turn into water particles and they'd never be able to touch me."

"How'd you agree to get Wendy to play?" Lucy asked.

"It was her idea," Gray said. "Sherria is also hanging out around somewhere, probably playing. She was the one that tagged me while we were leaving the stadium."

Lucy nodded. That would explain Natsu's rush to get to the apartment and…The lightbulb went off in Lucy's head.

"That bastard was just running me around to get away from you guys," Lucy said. She trembled her fist, shaking it at Gray. "Gray I'll kick your shirtless ass!"

"Wow, Lucy, didn't know you had such a temper!"

They all turned on their heels quickly. A short-haired Chapati Lola strolled up to them. He bowed his head, but before he could speak, his eyes fell to the ice statue of Natsu Dragneel.

"It's quite life-like," he muttered.

"Thanks, made it myself," Gray said, jabbing a finger at his chest. "I'll sell it to you if you want."

I want it!

Lucy kept her mouth shut, but the words stopped at her teeth. She pursed her lips and rested her elbow against it.

"Enjoying some time off, Chapati?" Lucy asked. "It's nice to hear you in the booth again."

Chapati smiled warmly. "I do miss your commentary alongside me, Lucy. Maybe next year, if you're not competing."

"I'd love it," Lucy said. "If you ever need my help, I'm more than willing to lend a hand."

"That's simply wonderful to hear," Chapati said. "Oh, but if you all aren't going to be hanging out around this statue of Natsu for much longer, there's something I'd like to ask of you all."

* * *

Kagura sat at the small roundtable by herself, sitting across the smiling face of old man Yajima. Unlike most old men, he didn't gaze upon her with some perverted lust, but rather mild fascination. Like any great wizard, he saw the potential in her power. Kagura always enjoyed a civilized conversation about magic, though got a bit shy when it became about her.

"What about you, Mister Yajima?" she asked. She placed her hand around her cup of magnificent tea that he'd brewed for her. "What's your favorite magical moment?"

"Oh, it has to be when I opened my first shop," Yajima said. He chuckled. "Thanks to Tartaros it didn't last very long."

"I can only hope this new one lasts a big longer." Kagura swept her eyes around the place. A homely little coffee shop with two other party rooms and plenty of seating room. It reminded her quite a bit of a guild hall, which had probably been constructed on purpose. The restaurant was open mainly for wizards, especially those competing in the Grand Magic Games.

"Thank you, my dear," Yajima said. "And thank you so much for coming! Oh, I was so nervous."

"I don't think you have any reason to worry about that." Kagura glanced over her shoulder and Chapati Lola, in a nice suit and wearing a toupee, finally settled down and sat next to them at the table. He winked at Yajima.

"Ah, you sent them out, did you?" Yajima asked. "Cheeky young man, you."

"Anything to help you, old friend," Chapati said.

Kagura raised her eyebrow. "I'm not following."

A ringing at the door quickly quelled her curiosity. Rogue the Shadow Dragon Slayer and Minerva poked their heads in. Minerva, Kagura observed, stood awfully close to the boy.

"Hello, is this the right place?" Minerva asked.

"Ah, welcome!" Yajima exclaimed. "Welcome to my new restaurant, Crocus Cooks!"

Kagura chuckled at the name and stood up. "Good to see you two once again. Sting fought excellently in the battle royale."

"Thank you, Kagura," Minerva said. She and Kagura shook hands, their grips tight on one another. Kagura then shook Rogue's hand, and he had a bit of a softer, shier grip.

"Is he still resting?" Kagura asked.

"Indeed, he'll be able to walk around more tomorrow," Minerva said. She looked about. "I suspected a few more people would be here by now."

Suddenly, a madwoman burst through the door and slammed it behind her. It took Kagura a moment to realize it was Erza.

"Erza?" Minerva and Kagura asked.

"Good, plenty of room," Erza muttered. She hadn't even noticed the wizards standing in front of her. "Excellent."

She bolted by them. Yajima chuckled to himself, standing atop a pristine, clean roundtable meant for two.

"I ensured that this building would be Fairy Tail-proof, too," Yajima said. "There should be no need to worry."

"Nothing is Fairy Tail-proof," Kagura said. She rested her hands on her hips. "So, Minerva, how have…"

The door opened once more, this time revealing Meldy and Cobra of Crime Sorciere. "Oh, I suppose this is the place. How quaint…"

" _Watch out_!"

Meldy and Cobra blasted into the room, barreled over underneath a flying Wendy, who crashed and banged off several tables.

"Wendy, what's happened?" Rogue asked.

"It's Natsu!" she exclaimed.

A sudden warmth overcame them and a searing heat entered the building. Gray, Lucy, Happy, and Juvia all then blitzed into the building, Gray slamming the door behind them and sealing it.

"Excellent work, Gray!" Erza exclaimed, but Kagura could not see her.

"What's wrong with Natsu?" Kagura asked.

"What isn't wrong with Natsu?" Cobra said.

"HEY!" Natsu. "BETTER OPEN UP IN THERE, I'VE GOT A FRIGGIN' ICE WIZARD TO TAG IN THERE!"

"Sounds pretty serious," Cobra said. "Tag, you said?"

"With Natsu?" Minerva asked, and chuckled. "Sounds like this could be fun."

Kagura's mouth hung wide open, and she gawked about to the wizards in the room.

"Were you invited to tag?" she asked. "I was just asked to come for a cup of tea!"

* * *

 **Nothing ever really seems to go as planned with Fairy Tail, does it? But hey, at least nothing's been destroyed...yet ;)**

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'd love to get your feedback on how you're liking this story so far! We'll do a couple more "relaxed" chapters before getting back into the games proper!**

 **If you enjoyed this, please check out my other fic "Fairy Tail - New Era," which just started it's seventh arc!**

 **Thanks for reading, you guys are great!**


	8. Chapter 7 - Crocus Tag, X793

All of the wizards playing—Gray, Wendy, Cobra, Rogue, Minerva—shot out of the small café toward Natsu, and then all of then broke apart when Natsu converged toward them. Lucy watched in utter awe at how fast the situation developed. Kagura seemed to share the feeling, as did Carla. But, there was another presence in the room, one that seemed to hold some other feeling of shock and horror.

"Erza?" Lucy asked.

"What is it?" Titania asked. "He's not here, is he?"

"Jellal?" Kagura asked for Lucy.

"No," Erza said. "Lord, no. I'd take him any day over what I fear comes for me. What that… _parfum_ …warns me of."

"Oh," Lucy said, frowning. "Ichiya," she mumbled to Kagura. "They've got a bit of a checkered past."

"How so?" Kagura asked.

"Pretty sure he just hits on her all the time and comments on her parfum," Lucy said, trying to add Ichiya's intonation to the word _parfum_. "And it's kinda creepy."

"He's an odd little man, and I wouldn't want my Crocus experience ruined," Erza said.

Suddenly she appeared, from around the corner, with a baking pan in her hand and a small cake baking atop it.

"Which is why I'm going to take my mind off of things for now," Erza said. "Kagura, Lucy, would you care to join? The more food we can make the better we can mask our scents until curfew this evening, where there will be no chance of him finding me."

Lucy sighed. "There may not be a city for him to find you in at this rate."

* * *

Another explosion, this one hanging over the air. Natsu's howl swelled throughout the city and Cobra heard it blaring in his ears. He closed his good eye and slid to a halt, ducking beneath a canopy and watching soar by overhead, following a rather slow Minerva. Cobra surveyed his options.

He anticipated having to exchange blows with Natsu. He grimaced. This didn't seem quite like the Wizard Tag he was used to growing up outside the Tower of Heaven. Usually Wizard Tag was more of a to-the-death thing where if you got hit by someone's magic they would probably be killed. That'd be frowned upon here.

Still, did that mean the wizards had to touch them with their body or with their magic? Cobra wasn't sure. The way they played was with their magic. But if Natsu hit any one of them with a fireball, it'd probably knock them out. And if that kid Wendy got tagged and became It, how the hell would they dodge her? She could control the wind!

Cobra sprinted down an alleyway, running on the front of his feet so to muffle his sound. Natsu being It meant that Cobra could read the moron like a book, but he had the best nose out of all of them. If he wanted to switch targets he could just lock onto their scent and track them down with ease. In a close-quarters situation, Cobra would be at a serious disadvantage.

He sprinted out of the alley and onto one of the main roads. In an open battle had a much better chance. Natsu was quick, yeah, but if Cobra could just prance around him he could probably wear the guy out mentally and physically. Natsu could outpace him in a physical bout but knowing the moron he'd just grow tired and find another target.

Cobra scoffed. Like who? Gray could just put up ice walls, Wendy had control of the wind, and that creepy Shadow Dragon Slayer could literally turn into a shadow. That left, what, Minerva? Well, from what Cobra remembered Jellal telling them, she could teleport. If Natsu were wise, he'd go straight for Cobra and not even bother with anyone else.

Cobra sneered. Natsu would probably just go for the strongest opponent though, so like he pursued Gray. Cobra heard Natsu roaring at the top of his lungs, and indeed, the nearest voice was Gray's, but they were getting closer. Cobra slid to a halt and put his hands in his pocket.

"Well, alright then," he muttered. Gray's voice ebbed ever close. Cobra flared his aura around him and everyone on the street quickly backed away. Good, Cobra thought looking around.

He saw a flash in the sky, then a purple streak of ice coursed by overhead. Cobra roared and his red-black aura flared around him. He heard Natsu shift his attention and Cobra howled with laughter.

"Come on, Natsu, been a while since we had a little bit of fun together!" Cobra exclaimed.

Natsu finally came into view, and Cobra was already moving. Natsu attacked with a light stream of fire, as Cobra anticipated. Cobra slid away and sprinted down the street. Natsu landed on the ground and roared into the sky.

"WOULD YOU FRIGGIN' PEOPLE STOP MOVING?"

Cobra chuckled. "Well, that was easy."

He leapt up, over a fireball that harmlessly bounced off the ground and into the sky above, exploding like a brilliant firework. Cobra spun around and dodged two streams of fire and then lurched toward Natsu, who didn't see the move coming. As such, he had to think.

 _Lower uppercut, finished with a bicycle kick and a Fire Dragon Roar_.

Cobra instead swung to the side, completely avoiding the kick. He pulsed his magic and blasted Natsu away and curved his Fire Dragon Roar once more into the sky.

"COBRA!" Natsu exclaimed, his voice draining away as he soared down the city. Cobra brushed his hands.

There was little activity behind him; a perfect place to hide out from Natsu for a little while. He turned his head slightly.

A shift in the breeze told him all he needed to know about who Natsu would be playing with next.

* * *

Gray slid atop a building, and not moments later did Wendy drop in next to him. Gray grinned and patted Wendy on the head. She jolted.

"I'm not It," Gray said.

"Oh, thank goodness," Wendy said, and sighed. "I thought I saw Natsu somewhere around here, is he still?"

"I think so," Gray said. He gestured to where Cobra had been moments ago. "Cobra just put Natsu on his butt a few seconds ago. He should be back any moment now."

"I kinda don't wanna be here when he gets up," Wendy said.

"I'll cover you," Gray said as a plume of fire shot into the sky. Natsu's voice followed not long after it. Gray squatted down and let his hands fill with Ice magic.

"Gray, it'll never cease to amaze me how fast you can strip," Wendy said.

Gray raised an eyebrow and Wendy's face turned as red as Erza's hair. "No, no, I meant…oh jeez!"  
"Just get going," Gray said, doing his best to hold back a laugh.

The plume of fire curved and headed straight for them. Gray sighed and let his icy aura coat over him. Tiny snowflakes wafted away from his aura. Wendy burst away in a gust of wind.

Natsu slammed onto the rooftop, his flaming aura consuming him.

"You," he said, his body crackling with power.

Gray grimaced. "What's up, pal? You look a little flustered."

"You put this on me," Natsu said, his voice swelling with absolute rage.

Gray let his Demon Slayer magic coat his side. He was definitely gonna need it for this fight. Natsu was hunched over, fire magic consuming him, his eyes pale. His body twitched with absolute rage.

"Do something about it," Gray said.

Natsu leaned back and Gray slammed his fist into his hand.

" _Fire Dragon Roar_!"

" _Ice Demon's Rage_!"

Their two streams of magic slammed into one another and the fray instantly began. Gray quickly flicked a wall of ice between them that Natsu slammed into with all his might. Gray swung his arm around and an Ice Demon Fist rammed into Natsu's side, but Natsu recovered by using his flames as an engine to blast back toward Gray.

Gray flipped off the rooftop and flicked his wrist behind him, creating a slide to move on. Gray moved fast down the slide and then curved it up so he went airborne, forcing Natsu into the sky with him. Natsu reared back a pretty predictable fist. Gray prepared himself again, then swung his arms down. Natsu braced for nothing until the Ice-Make Geyser rammed into his stomach and he flew higher into the air.

Gray slid along a rooftop and sprinted across it until he reached the side and dove off, spotting Natsu soaring down at him in his peripheral. Gray reached a hand out and braced himself along the side of the building and then pushed off with his own magic power. Natsu slammed the ground where Gray would've landed.

Gray surged his power forward and froze the few square feet around Natsu, but he was gone. Gray panicked for a moment, but felt the heat of Natsu's flames before they could touch him. He sucked in his gut and swerved to the side, keeping one hand free.

"Gotcha!" Natsu roared, his other hand coming in with fires hot enough to make Gray sweat.

"Sure do!" Gray exclaimed, and snapped his fingers.

Natsu's first fist missed Gray and his second punched through an Ice-Make Clone. The real Gray skirted around Natsu and blasted him in the back with just a pulse of magic power. Gray swung his arms to his side freezing the street in front of him, then pushed himself along, practically gliding across the ground at top speed or Natsu to follow at.

He leapt off the sheet of ice once he reached a more congested area, then threw up a large hill of ice and sprinted up it to be on the roofs. From there he just had to outrun the Dragon Slayer, who gained on him quickly. Gray surveyed the immediate area around him for any signs of an escape route.

The sun was starting to set, meaning Natsu still had a timer on him. If they could outlast him for maybe an hour or so they'd win the game.

So, Gray could either get away, or he could find some way of stalling Natsu. He grinned. Now, what fun was there in just running away.

He turned and faced Natsu, who bore down upon him with all of his regular flames. They suddenly crackled with a bit of lightning. Gray shifted his feet, creating two clones right atop one another. He pushed forward and Natsu, in just a second, crushed both of them.

Gray slid to a halt on the other end of the building. Steam settled in around the two wizards. Natsu stood as nothing more than a silhouette on the other end.

"You really think you can escape, Gray?" Natsu asked, swinging his arm and dissipating the steam.

But Gray was already gone. A clone was there instead. Just as Natsu opened his mouth to voice his confusion, Gray leapt up from behind, fist in his open palm.

" _Ice-Make Prison_!"

He dropped the prison, this one thick enough that not even Natsu's flames could burn through it with ease, right on top of the Dragon Slayer. Gray landed and adjusted himself, keeping his focus on the magic.

Natsu roared within the cage and the ice sweat like Gray. That wouldn't hold, not nearly long enough for Gray to like. He didn't have much choice, now, but to hold Natsu off as long as possible. If this were a straight up fight he could probably knock him out right there, but that wouldn't be in keeping with the game!

Instead, he shifted his foot and froze the rooftop, including Natsu, who had nothing but irritation written across his face. Gray chuckled and leapt off the rooftop.

"Sorry pal, but you ain't winning this time!"

* * *

Minerva and Rogue slid to a halt at the edge of an alleyway. Twilight had settled in and Crocus remained silent as the grave in terms of magical action. Last Rogue was able to sense Natsu was caught up in combat with Gray, but that ended what had to be around twenty minutes ago.

He glanced at Minerva, who nodded and gave him the okay to move. They did so quickly, moving into a crowd and keeping their eyes up only to see their immediate surroundings. If Natsu came close Rogue would be able to tell, but his sense were probably the weakest of the Dragon Slayers when it came to reaction time.

However, he and Minerva were best suited for Wizard Tag. Minerva could keep anything and anyone away from her, and Rogue could just fall into shadow.

Minerva held her arm up, forcing Rogue to stop immediately.

"Do you see those prices?" she muttered, pointing to a nearby vendor.

Rogue almost lost his entire lungs worth of breath from his sigh. "Minerva, now? Not, like, later, when we're not being hounded by Natsu?"

"There's never a bad time for sales, Rogue," Minerva said, flicking his chest. "Come."

"We're going in?" Rogue asked.

"Yes," Minerva said. She leered. "And don't worry, if Natsu comes knocking, I'll protect you."  
Rogue bowed his head and followed Minerva, moving close to her. Out of protection? Or just a need to be next to her? Rogue felt his stomach do a once-over and had to avert his gaze from her without having that feeling reoccur over and over.

They reached the shop door and the vendor smiled to show them inside before he recognized Minerva's face.

"Oh…oh my…" he muttered. "You're wizards, aren't you?"

"Minerva," she said. "A pleasure."

"Minerva Orland, of Sabertooth?" the vendor blubbered. Minerva nodded to him. He glanced at Rogue.

"And you…you're Sting!"

"Rogue."

"Oh, my mistake," the vendor muttered.

"It's fine, I get them mixed up all the time."

The world seemed to freeze for just a moment. Minerva and Rogue locked up instantly out of fear. Rogue didn't even have the heart to turn around.

"Turns out the best way of winning this game is to just not use magic," Natsu said behind Rogue. He couldn't have been more then five feet from him.

The Shadow Dragon Slayer did quick math. He had enough time to dive into shadow, but Minerva's spells probably took at least a second charging time. In that extra four seconds Natsu would easily be able to overwhelm and tag her.

Plus they were _in_ a shop. The use of magic may not be prohibited, but in their case it would certainly end in destruction. Was Natsu so blinded by his cause to win that he would actually threaten them here?

"Now I'm just stuck with a pretty bad option," Natsu said.

"Flip a coin, that makes it a lot easier," Minerva said.

Rogue raised an eyebrow at her and she just pointed at the ground. She wanted him to become a shadow? Why? That would leave her wide open, wouldn't it?

Rogue's eyes widened and Minerva's lips curled to a half-grin. No, it would do more than that. Natsu would be distracted, giving Minerva just enough time to charge up a spell and get out of there without Natsu even realizing what'd happened.

"No, Natsu, tag me," Rogue said. He turned and, indeed, Natsu stood right there, his hands twitching at his side. "Let Minerva go."

Natsu grimaced. "Doesn't seem right just giving yourself up like that."

"You wouldn't do the same for your guildmates?" Rogue asked.

Natsu shrugged. "Good point, but, you asked for. I guess with your shadow ability it'll be easier to fool others."

"Yup. It sure will be."

Right as Natsu stepped forward, casually, Rogue instantly dropped into shadow. Natsu sprang forward, pushing all his weight forward. Rogue sprang up against behind Natsu and Minerva acted instantly, swinging her arms up and casting Territory on Natsu, knocking him into the sky.

"Rogue, meet me at the café in ten minutes," Minerva muttered. Then, louder, she exclaimed, "Rogue, go, now!"

Natsu flipped in the air and managed to catch himself. Rogue dashed away, taking the shadows into his own as Minerva sprinted away, too, but did so backed by the power of her own magic.

Rogue didn't even get a block away when he spotted Wendy overhead, and heard Natsu behind them giving pursuit.

"THAT'S IT, I'M ALL DONE WITH GAMES!" Natsu exclaimed, loud enough for all of Crocus to hear. "LIGHTNING FLAME DRAGON MODE!"

"Oh, come on!" Rogue exclaimed and dipped into shadow once more, swerving from a fireball that would've surely hit him. Wendy caughtflight and blasted through the sky, in the direction of the castle. Rogue slid to a halt on a rooftop and could do little more than cover his eyes as Natsu shot after Wendy toward the castle.

* * *

Queen Hisui took in the beautiful night sky, closing her eyes and breathing in a deep sigh, tasting the wondrous scents of her city below. She couldn't quite hear them, but she could feel the positive buzz of the city below. A few spurts of magic, she noticed, were also up and about. Probably Fairy Tail, she though with a warm smile.

"My Queen," Arcadios said. She looked over her shoulder and the knight approached with her main advisor, Darton. Darton bowed to her as well.

"Come, join me, friends," she said, patting the balcony she stood at. "Let us enjoy the first night of our first annual Dragon Festival."

"It's been quite a stunning display so far," Darton said. "You've certainly outdone yourself, my queen."

Hisui blushed. "I can't take all the credit. These wonderful wizards are what make it so special." She raised a hand and lightly touched her chest, feeling her steady heartbeat. "I look forward to what the rest will bring."

"Um, speaking of wizards" Darton said, and pointed a shaking hand in front of them.

"Hisui, get behind me!" Arcadios roared, but Hisui held her arm out in front of him.

Indeed, two wizards soared across the sky toward them. Hisui instantly recognized them as Wendy and Natsu. She raised an eyebrow. Was something wrong.

Natsu shot a fireball at Wendy and Hisui couldn't quite figure it out until Wendy dodged. And even then, she saw it all in Wendy's face. There was fear, but not confusion. Natsu was chasing Wendy. Why?

Wendy's eyes bulged and she swerved before she reached the castle grounds, but Natsu, not necessarily flying so much as he was using his flames as a propulsion system, did not have the luxury of turning. He kept going and going. Arcadios tensed next to Hisui, who just smiled at Natsu. The Fire Dragon Slayer had a confused expression mere seconds before slamming into the projection wall.

Ripples resounded off the anti-magic barrier surrounding the castle on all sides.

"Ah, indeed, the castle is quite Fairy Tail-proof," Darton said, sighing.

Hisui summoned her voice from deep within her chest, "WENDY!"

The young blue-haired girl spun around, dropping her gaze to a plummeting Natsu, who already had a nice welt forming on his face.

"Are you playing tag?" Hisui asked, her smiling returning.

Wendy could only nod. Hisui gestured at Natsu on the ground.

"Best take him back inside, we wouldn't want him out past curfew," Hisui said. She stopped Wendy. "On second thought, I'll have some of my men do that. Wouldn't want you getting tagged, would we?"

* * *

Lucy sat at the edge of Natsu's bed. It was well-past ten at night at this point and Fairy Tail's inn was still buzzing with activity. Erza had Lucy drag her back to the inn while she went through several Requips to stay in disguise, and away from Ichiya. Gray and Juvia finally reunited after Gray's efforts against Natsu in Wizard Tag and nobody had seen them since.

More than anything Lucy wanted to be downstairs with Levy and Cana sharing a nice drink before the games proper got started tomorrow. Makarov, drinking himself silly to mask the pain from his injuries earlier in the day, kept giving rousing speeches about Fairy Tail, but kept referring to himself as third, fifth, or eighth master. It wasn't the prettiest of sights. Laxus, last Lucy saw, was nearby.

Happy and the Exceeds were also downstairs with Wendy. Lucy gave Happy permission to go play with Happy while she stayed upstairs with Natsu. In all honesty it was rather nice. His room was rather quiet and she could get some good meditation in while he snoozed away. She wondered if he'd just slipped into sleep at some point, but didn't want to leave if he woke up concussed or anything.

She had his hand on her lap, mostly so she could know if he moved, and mostly because…

Lucy blushed. Because she wanted to feel his touch. She took his hand into her own. His hands were so warm, like holding a hand by candlelight. They were rugged, yes, like a working man's hands. Her hands weren't so soft, though. All her magic usage and battles and all the writing she had to do for her book made her hands lose their feminine charm a while ago.

She set his hand back down on her lap and unclipped her key ring from her belt, studying some of her keys. Tomorrow was her time to shine, as Erza told her when they arrived. She would participate in the actual games, while Gajeel would be partaking in the battle portion. The days were going to be separated like that all through the competition, save for the final day, which would just be one massive round. The morning would be the games, and the afternoon would be the battles. Lucy was the only team member not participating in battles this time, which was fine.

One would suspect her of being better in a fight than Cana, but Cana's card versatility made her impossible to predict for any opponent. Not to mention that the only opponents she really need worry about would be Orga, Rogue, Minerva, and maybe someone like Sherria or Bacchus. And at that point they'd just challenge each other to a drinking contest. Lucy rolled her eyes. That'd be ridiculous.

Natsu groaned and instantly captured her attention. His head rolled to the side and his mouth opened up. Lucy took his hand into her own and…

A big inhale, and an even bigger snore. Lucy let go his hand and let it just drop to the ground. The guy didn't even notice. Rage flushed over Lucy for a moment, but, she couldn't seem to take her eyes off of him. She harrumphed and settled into the chair.

"By hell or high water I will see you wake up, Natsu Dragneel," she muttered. Because, she knew, she couldn't stand for them to be awake and not be near each other.

Lucy's face turned red as Natsu's hand and she just shut her eyes, thinking with all her might to try and focus on the task at hand.

And, of course, it didn't work.

* * *

 **Poor Natsu. Dude just can't catch a break. Ah, well, not everything has to go your way after saving the world, I suppose!**

 **Next time, the games begin! It's been pretty fun to get to explore the wizards outside the insanity of the games, and into the insanity that is their everyday lives. I like to imagine that Fairy Tail often plays spontaneous games of Wizard Tag. Erza probably wins.**

 **Thank you for reading, and have a lovely day! :D**


	9. Chapter 8 - Dance Revolution

The stadium sprang to life at the sign of Mato on the great projection lacrima. They waved their arms at the roaring crowd. A few thin strips of cloud tore along the great blue Fiore sky, seeming so close to the raised stadium.

Mato stepped out into the middle of the arena, holding their arms down and signaling for the crowd to quiet. They stood on a long black stage with a few trinkets on it, like twirlers and a few chairs. Mato hopped onto a chair, precariously balancing on the chair.

"Welcome to the official first day of the Dragon Festival!" Mato exclaimed with the same noticeably higher-pitch. "We've got a fun one for you today! Hope you'll be able to sit back, relax, and enjoy the festivities!"

The crowd roared and Mato waited a few seconds until speaking again, "Today is our dance competition, back after a few years' hiatus! Each competitor will have a maximum of two minutes to display awesome moves to wow us! Our judges for this will be some renowned wizards from across the decades!"

Magic lights shone down upon three individuals at the edge of the arena, facing the stadium, sitting in a table with a blank tablet. The most noticeable was Wolfheim, the second of the Ten Wizard Saints. Another was Darton, Hisui's chief advisor and likely the hardest to please. Last was, quite strikingly of all, Cancer, Lucy's Celestial Spirit, bound by contract to Hisui, as a Celestial Spirit Mage, to participate and judge the contest fairly and not skew any points toward Fairy Tail's participation.

"And now without further ado, I'd like to toss it back up to our commentators, featuring Magic Council advisor and former Fairy Tail member Doranbolt as our guest for today!"

"Thank you kindly, dear Mato," Chapati Lola, wearing a rather fashionable set of hair today, said. "Now, Mr. Yajima, obviously the dance battle is a widely popular and hotly competition part of any Grand Magic Games when involved. Seeing as how we've now been rebranded to the Dragon Festival, how do you suspect that will change things?"

A pause, then, "Well, seeing as how there are no Dragon Slayers in the actual competition I can't be entirely certain."  
"Asking around a bit, I heard there may be some dragon-inspired clothing and dance moves throughout the competition," Doranbolt said. "Again, this year's competition is meant to honor the legacy of the dragons and Dragon Slayers that fought bravely for our country, and I suspect we'll definitely see some of that in the dances here today."

"Doranbolt, were you able to gleam any other information about the dances being performed this morning?"

Doranbolt chuckled. "Only what I just told you; everyone seemed a little unsettled still over the great game of Wizard Tag that went down yesterday."

"I heard it ended rather abruptly," Lola said.

"It ended with a crash, yes," Doranbolt said. Then, low, he said, "Lucy you're still it, by the way, don't want to let you forget."

From somewhere in the crowd, Natsu Dragneel squealed, not realizing that he'd tagged her last night when Lucy accidentally grasped his hand in comfort.

"Hmm, perhaps more on that later. For now let's kick off our competition, starting with the ever-lovely absolutely adorable Sherria Blendy of Lamia Scale!"

Sherria leapt out of her small canopy area and onto the arena, sprinting for the black stadium before tripping and actually tumbling _up_ to the stage. She slid to a halt, then swung her legs around in a spray of black-white God Slayer magic and was on her feet.

"Nothing ever seems to let that girl down," Yajima said.

"Yes, but this will certainly be interesting to see how she incorporates her magic," Doranbolt said, leaning closer to the mic. He seemed clearly the most interested of all of them. "Since losing her magic to Dimaria to activate her Third Origin, Sherria's been hard at work restoring it, but it may not yet be at it's full capacity."

"Indeed, we shall have to wait and see!" Chapati exclaimed.

Mato waved Sherria on and she smiled to the crowd before settling down a bit. She then began her dance, moving with exceptional grace and relying mostly on her legs and a series of tumbles. Each move flowed naturally into the next, though, and it became abundantly clear that even without her magic, Sherria's body swayed and moved in the without abandon.

She contorted her back and slid across the stage, weaving her arms and legs through several motions that, upon first glance, seemed connected until one looked closer and saw that each intricate movement bled into the next; when her right arm move, then did her left leg. When she tumbled she did so masterfully: momentarily fooling the crowd into thinking she'd done it on accident before springing back up, high into the air, and doing several spins before landing on the flat of her foot then propping up on her tippy-toe and spinning once, twice, and finally coming down with her arms raised to the crowd.

The crowd roared in applause and cheer for Sherria, who let tears burst from her eyes and a smile crashed against her lips. She blew kisses toward Lamia Scale. Mato joined her on the stage and took her hand, the smiling pumpkin head clearly doing wonders for her.

Wolfheim hesitated as the first judge, then grinned at Sherria and held up an 8. Darton gave her a 6, and Cancer gave her an 8 as well.

Sherria skipped off the platform, clearly exhausted and riding only the high of her adrenaline and excitement.

"Well that was quite the first showing," Lola said. "Nothing like getting the games going on a great foot."

"Ah, a clever pun," Yajima chirped.

"Something like that," Doranbolt said. "Though I do find it interesting that Sherria did not use her magic at all. Certainly she displayed how her training as the Sky God-Slayer has shaped her inner movements. I suppose we'll have to see as the day progresses how much magic is truly integrated."

Chapati hummed in agreement. "Did you notice anything in particular about her dance?"

"Only that it seemed a bit more akin to that of a Dragon Slayer," Doranbolt muttered. "I've only seem someone float like that once, and it was Wendy Marvell. Well, I suppose that makes sense; was hardly a year ago that the two of them were Sky Sisters."

"Perhaps they worked on the dance after tag last night," Yajima said.

"I'm curious, though, how did Natsu manage to tag Lucy?" Lola asked.

"Not sure," Doranbolt said. "Oh, but, here comes our next dancer."

"And boy do they look it," Chapati said, with every drop possible of sarcasm in his voice. "It's Obra, of Orochi's Twilight, formerly of Raven Tail!"  
The small brown ball with a tail and demonic teeth flittered out onto the stage with great haste. The stadium fell silent. No puppet? Obra's abilities were widely known following Raven Tail's arrest at the Grand Magic Games that brought Fairy Tail back to prominence, so it was rather curious to see him without a puppet.

Mato gestured for Obra to begin, and so he did: transforming into each of Fairy Tail's known Guild Masters and making a mockery of them on stage before leaping off and howling with glee about it.

The crowd remained silent; nobody laughed, nobody booed, nobody knew what to do. Doranbolt's shaky voice carried over.

"How petty," he growled.

The scores reflected his actions: 0, 0, 1. The one came from Darton for magical ability alone, and that was all.

"I knew that Orochi's Twilight was looking to disgrace Fairy Tail this year, but this doesn't seem acceptable," Yajima said. "Magic should not be used to defame, only for the betterment of us all."

"Then why do we have a swimsuit competition?" Doranbolt asked, his hand over the mic so that the crowd could only hear, "Don't have a swimsuit competition?"

The crowd roared and the announcers were unsure why. Lola quickly came to the aid of the announcers by saying, "No, the swimsuit competition is merely a subset of the naval battle, it's purely optional! Any woman who wishes to strut her stuff and show what she's made of will be allowed to participate."

" _If_ they are participating in the games," Doranbolt said quickly, and the crowd hushed as the anticipation for another battle of butts and busts between Mira and Jenny Realight faded.

"Indeed," Yajima said, and visibly relaxed.

"My, Mr. Yajima, I haven't seen you quite so on edge in a while," Lola said.

"Well, last night's tag seemed a bit erratic, honestly," Yajima said. "Didn't get much sleep because of it. The castle may be Fairy Tail proof…ah, I'll just chat with Makarov on it later."

"Still, at least they didn't defile their name as Orochi's Twilight has tried," Doranbolt muttered. "Have some class! You're wizards of Fiore!"

He stood up and then sat back down to relax the tension in the announcer's booth. Lola chuckled rather awkwardly then said,  
"Ah, good, our next dancer is out! It's Saber Tooth's very own Dobengal!"

The crowd went into a massive uproar. While Fairy Tail gained much of its lost favor, and procured even more after successfully defeating Acnologia, Saber Tooth still held top dog for most popular guild. After all, so many kids and teenagers had been raised knowing Saber Tooth as the best guild with some of the coolest wizards, not the least of which applied to Dobengal.

He appeared out of nowhere on the stage, startling even Mato. He gracefully bowed to the crowd and when Mato gave him the signal, he instantly began, spinning on his heels and throwing glowing darts into the ground.

Dobengal braced himself once, twice, then sprang into the air and twirled about, shooting rainbow beams that latched onto the darts locked in the ground. Each movement he made, with each bright ray of light, twisted and congealed in a certain way. Dobengal then stood atop the solid magic and did a little ditty with his feet; while it seemed initially that he was merely dancing, a closer inspection would reveal that he actauly tied all of the beams together with his feet.

Dobengal flipped backward off, bounced once, then pulled on the beams. They all quickly came together. Dobengal continued his same dance as the beams collided and exploded in a blast of light to make out the Saber Tooth guild emblem. The crowd roared and he stopped, bowing to them all once again.

"That was magnificent!" Lola exclaimed.

"Truly exemplary work, showing off his vast array of magical skills and perfectly weaving them into a dance," Yajima said.

"I'll admit, I didn't think that someone with Dobengal's skills would be suited to the art of dancing, but I will happily stand corrected in that field," Dorranbolt said. "Very well done indeed."  
The judges thought so as well: Wolfheim gave Dobengal a 9, Darton gave him an 8, and Cancer also gave him and 8, putting Dobengal in the lead.

"My, that's one way to wash a bad taste out of the mouth, isn't it?" Doranbolt spoke.

"Indeed," Yajima said. "That's exactly what Hisui and the judges were thinking to see, I imagine. Shame he didn't get a higher score, but this is a competition after all. Most of these wizards deserve perfect scores based off of their proficiency alone."

"They're heroes, Mr. Yajima," Doranbolt said. "As we said earlier, Sherria stared down one of the Spriggan Twelve in direct combat. Lucy Heartfilia and Hoteye did the same, a few times as I recall."

"We truly have some exceptional wizards on display here in this first ever Dragon Festival," Lola said. "Our next dancer is certainly no slouch, either. Here she comes, the author that just stole the heart of Fiore, Fairy Tail's own Lucy Heartfilia!"

The crowd gave her just about as big a roar as they did for Dobengal, but Lucy had the backing of all of Fairy Tail as well. Natsu's big voice alone could probably carry over all of the crowd if he wanted. He and Happy noticeably jumped around, almost falling off their balcony. Cana Alberona, half-drunk already, also cheered Lucy on.

Lucy jogged onto the stage, holding three of her keys at the ready. Mato gave her the signal, and Lucy nodded.

" _Open, Gate of the Twins_!" she exclaimed, " _Gemini_!"

Another Lucy appeared next to her, wearing a more revealing dress. Lucy then pointed one of her keys at her and exclaimed,

" _Star Dress: Aquarius_!"

A bright flash of light in the middle of one of Lucy's moves illuminated the entire arena and when she stepped free she was in her aquatic Star Dress weaving her fingers through the air. The Gemini Lucy slid beneath Lucy in one fluid movement and Lucy whipped the water around her counterpart and caught her around the hip, spinning her back before her third key activated and Virgo appeared, springing the Gemini Lucy into the air.

Lucy in her Star Dress summoned a spring of water and held it there for Gemini Lucy to splash in and create sprays of beautiful water in the air. Lucy continued to do a dance similar to that which she did in Stella, though far less seductive and using her hips a lot more, before the water came to a halt and Gemini Lucy poofed away, leaving Lucy on the stage.

She slid, blasting water up. Lucy swung her hands out and the water splashed all around then evaporated in billions of tiny sparkles in the air. Lucy, on her side, twirled one last time to pose for the judges and the crowd ate all of it up.

"I think we can expect nothing less of a Celestial Spirit wizard," Yajima said. "That was quite the excellent use of her magic."

"Indeed, quite the carefully crafted dance," Doranbolt said. "It makes you wonder how much time she was able to put into that last night or this morning, whenever she got her assignment."

"Who's to say," Yajima said.

The judges for this one were a bit more conflicted. Wolfheim gave Lucy an 8, Darton gave her only a 6, and Cancer, probably abiding by his contract, gave her a 7, putting Lucy in third place and just a point behind Sherria.

"Now that's a rather interesting score, don't you think?" Lola asked.

"I suspect it's because she had others on stage with her that Darton gave her a lower score," Doranbolt said, then leaned away from the microphone so nobody could hear and said, "Also I don't think he cares much for Celestial Spirit wizards after the Eclipse incident."

Yajima agreed. "True, there were others on stage, but that is the nature of Celestial Spirit Magic, and she did use that nifty Star Dress she had."

"It does make you question the fairness of it, though," Lola said.

"For practical purposes such as this, Celestial Spirit magic is tough to beat," Doranbolt said. "But in combat it can be quite the gamble; you leave your body exposed. As we've seen time and again with wizards like Yukino and Sorano, if the body is quite physically capable of taking a hit it may not be too much of a crutch."

"Are you suggesting Lucy isn't physically capable?"

"I'm suggesting that Star Dress is an absolute gain for someone like Lucy," Doranbolt said.

"Well, it may be an absolute must for our next opponent to outdo all of his competitors!" Lola said. "Here we have Richard Buchanan of Sorciere!"  
There were some light claps in the crowd, mostly coming from dedicated fans and the members of Fairy Tail. Richard blushed quite heavily as he approached the stage. His blocky body didn't seem like it would be able to really withstand the grace and speed that the others had danced with.

The crowd quieted and Richard looked lovingly to the crowd, "As it would be quiet difficult for me to move as it am, I would like to instead give you a dance of words, on behalf of my dear friends and guildmates:

 _Though our paths do stray and our pasts riddle with the darkness,_

 _Let us never forget that we, indeed, bear a magic in our heart,,_

 _One that shines so bright, so far, so wide and so deep,_

 _That not even a great demon dragon could stomach it, could survive it._

 _For we share that one magic that can outlast even the greatest evil_

 _Survive in the long night and short days, warm the cold hidden in us all_

 _Those of crime, of fairies and of sabers have seen_

 _As the Pegasus does fly and the mermaid does swim_

 _And the Cerberus does howl and the scales of life tip one way_

 _That if we hold true to LOVE, then, we can never fade to shadow_."

Nobody spoke, or moved, or did anything. This man, this criminal, this man who was held in a cell for countless years, spoke to them of love. They were all capable of it. Richard bowed his head to the crowd and judges once again and departed, still swelling with love.

It was Wolfheim who stood up first, holding up a 10. He then spoke, "What this man says is true, for wizard and non-wizard alike! Love is our greatest ally, our strongest friend. We must hold true to it!"

The crowd leapt to its feet at the Wizard Saint's beckoning and the announcer booth remained silent, Doranbolt most noticeably of all. Darton gave him a 1 out of spite and Cancer gave him a 7. Nobody in Sorciere seemed to mind in the slightest; they were simply proud of their wizard and that they were able to compete at all.

"My, what…what a powerful statement," Lola said.

"This is what it means to be a wizard, a member of a guild," Doranbolt said, his voice a bit shaky. "Thank you for that."

While the crowd continued to clap for several more minutes than allotted for the other competitors, Sorciere bowed and waved to them all and, for the first time, were recognized not as criminals or ex-criminals, but as people.

"And after that, what say we keep things unpredictable with our next competitor, Quatro Cerberus's own Rocker!"

Rocker stopped once and pointed to the Sorciere balcony, then gave a knowing thumbs-up and approached the stage.

Mato gestured for him to begin. Rocker put one foot on the chair and held his arm out. From seemingly nowhere, though really it was just Bacchus on the Quatro Cerberus balcony, a twelve-string guitar appeared in the air. Rocker caught it by one of the necks and spun it around his body then strummed a hard power chord and stopped down on the chair.

"Oh yeah!" he roared, and ripped into a guitar solo.

He swung his arm up when he struck another chord and used his magic to spin his body once, ripping the pieces of wood up and casting them into the sky in a furious display, distracting everyone as he continued to spin and the music distorted just a bit, but when he landed, Rocker was able to bounce once and the use the vacuum of air beneath to leap up and shoot into the sky. Rocker's dance really began in free-fall. He continued to jam on the magic guitar while doing several tricks with his arms and legs, spinning some parts of his body around at such a high speed that also helped amplify the sound of the magic.

Rocker flipped once and landed on his feet, hitting that final chord and letting it drone out into the stadium. He sighed and timed his bow perfectly with the roaring and cheering of the crowd. Mato showed Rocker off the stage and cleared away whatever bits of the chair were left for him to make room for the next competitor.

"Quite the jam," Yajima said.

"I didn't think Rocker was that talented with an instrument," Doranbolt said.

"Truly quite the show!" Lola exclaimed, standing up. Rocker really struck a chord with that guy.

The judges were once again varied: Wolfheim gave Rocker a 7, Darton gave him a 5, and Cancer gave him a 6, placing he and Richard Buchanan in a tie for second to last, with Obra probably going to place last no matter what, unless the next to competitors just did not arrive and were disqualified by forfeit.

"Though you were right, Lola, that was quite the dramatic shift," Doranbolt said. "Going from poetry to a pretty hard-core one-man concert certainly was something."

"Both men played to their strengths," Lola said.

"And that is why they are currently tied," Yajima said. "It's really only fitting. Neither put on a great display magically, but did show off their innate passion for competition. Truly inspiring stuff here."

"And remember, this is only day one, and we're not even halfway done, because later today, we've got the battle rounds to go through!" Chapati exclaimed. "But let's focus on today and our next competitor, our humble Miss Beth Vanderwood of Mermaid Heel!"

Beth sauntered out from Mermaid Heel's area and waved to the content crowd. Nobody not in Mermaid Heel outward cheered for Beth, and she seemed fine with that. She had her hands in her overall pockets and approached the stage, nodding to Mato.

Mato nodded for Beth to begin and she smiled at the crowd. She sighed, slapped her sides, and started a clearly-mastered country-style dance, like something one would see from a farmgirl. She clapped her hands to the beat of her feet touching the ground, and it spread quickly, with the entire crowd clapping in tune with her.

Beth then dropped her hands and continued her dance without the use of her magic whatsoever, similar to Sherria, except this was just down-home dancing, and she smiled all the way through it, not even breaking a sweat. Her feet, legs, and hands moved with such practiced ease that it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that she could do this dance asleep.

When the timer sounded Beth stopped naturally, possibly with a bit of added flourish, and then just waved to the judges and crowd and carried on, all done with her task. Everyone cheered a bit louder for this young woman so easily dancing on the stage, just doing what she could and doing it as best she could.

"Interesting to see another wizard not use their magic, but to have an incredible effective, well-practiced dance," Lola said, trailing the end of the sentence almost as if asking a question.

"I'd say," Yajima said. "I certainly wouldn't have expected that. And if you count Obra, that's three of the seven wizards so far who have not used magic."

"Did you two notice one of the key differences of the last two, though?" Doranbolt asked. "They were having just a ball down there. Beth's smile didn't leave her face once."

"Good point, Doranbolt," Lola said. "It almost makes you wonder if the wizards were chosen or volunteered for the event."

"Given that Team Captains only have a few hours to prepare, I'm sure they had to volunteer and come up with their own gameplan," Doranbolt said.

"And in this case it paid off well, since Beth's a natural dancer," Yajima said.

The scores then came in: Wolfheim gave her a 7, Darton gave her a 6, and Cancer gave her an 8, the same score he gave Sherria.

"Ah, interesting, another tie," Lola said. "We now have a tie for third place between Beth and Lucy."

"At this point, I think it's fair to say only a perfect score will earn this next guild a win," Doranbolt said.

"Let's find out now as we welcome our final competitor, one of the Trimens, Blue Pegasus's own Ren Akatsuki!"

The vast majority of the cheers that came for Ren sounded from the women of the crowd but most obvious of all was his wife, Sherry Blendy. Ren looked her way, then had to turn his glance from her.

He approached the stage with ease and suave, nodding to Mato who looked away and hopped off the stage as if embarrassed. Ren shrugged and was given the okay by Mato.

Ren's dance seemed strikingly similar to Sherria's, only he was able to integrate his magic into his moves that seemed quite a bit stiffer than Sherria's. Ren's body just didn't have grace or fluidity that Sherria had, but the added component of magic did give him a bit more flair.

Using his Air Magic, Ren was able to create some small cyclones around him and allow him to keep his hair blowing back, always making sure he looked super cool. This clearly took away from his concentration, and the dance itself suffered for it.

At the end, Ren did not strike a pose for the judges, but for the beautiful red-haired woman sitting in Lamia Scale's booth, and she blushed so her cheeks were as red as her hair.

"And that was our final dancer for the day!" Chapati declared. "We now await the judges' scores and then we can declare the winner for the first event of the Grand Magic Games! And while we wait, gentlemen, what did you think of today's events?"

"Besides one noticeable misstep, I think today went incredibly well," Doranbolt said. "The atmosphere has definitely been a bit more relaxed today and I think that showed in the dances, and non-dances, that we saw."

"We have a lot to look forward to," Yajima added.

"Ah, and the scores are in, let's have a look!"

Wolfheim held up his card, revealing a six. Darton also revealed a six, and Cancer showed off a seven.

"Oh, and there we have it, and boy are things going to be interesting going into the battles later today!" Chapati Lola exclaimed. "So please, head out into town to grab anything you may need, then at one this afternoon make sure you head on back, because we have a doozy of an opener."

"Indeed, and Hisui wants to make sure all of the Dragon Slayer battles are highlighted as part of the Dragon Festival, so I'm pleased to announce that our first battle this afternoon shall be between Fairy Tail's Iron Dragon Slayer Gajeel and Blue Pegasus's own Ichiya!"

"This will be very interesting indeed," Doranbolt said with a wide grin on his face. He had the best seat in the house for the true display of power that was set to commence.

* * *

 **Standings:**

 **1.** **Saber Tooth – 8**

 **2.** **Lamia Scale – 7**

 **3.** **Fairy Tail – 6**

 **4.** **Mermaid Heel – 6**

 **5.** **Quatro Cerberus – 5**

 **6.** **Sorciere – 5**

 **7.** **Blue Pegasus – 4**

 **8.** **Orochi's Twilight - 0**

* * *

 **Well that was certainly a way to kick off the GMG! I decided to do a bit of experimenting with not having POV, since if you're just watching the games, this is sort of what it would be like! Let me know what you thought of the events that went down, and be sure to stick around for the coming battles!**

 **Also if you enjoyed this be sure to check out my other FT story, _Fairy Tail - New Era_! **

**Thank you for reading, have a great day!**


	10. Chapter 9 - Iron Meeen

Gajeel cracked his knuckles a bit, then cricked his head from side-to-side. Levy stood in the room with him, watching as he did one last tug on his pants to make sure they were in place and wouldn't go flying during the fight. He clapped his hands together and turned to face the happily worried expression of Levy.

"Hey big guy," she said. "Ready?"

"You're nervous," Gajeel said. "You don't think I can take this guy?"

"I just always get nervous seeing you go off and doing things when I can't help you," Levy said, blushing. "Even something like this, just a simple fight, something we do like all the time. I just can't help it I guess."

Gajeel chuckled. "Man, you've really gotten soft in all this peace, haven't you?"

Levy shook her head. "No, just more content." She beamed up at Gajeel, and he felt a great swelling in his stomach.

In a quick movement he had Levy in his arms pinned against the wall, their lips against one another. Levy, despite her small size, was able to kiss him back just as hard. She wrapped one leg around his muscly back, her breath hot on his ear, and said, "Be safe, for me."

Gajeel chuckled and kissed her again. "C'mon babe." He set her down and moved a bit of hair from her face. "That just ain't me."

Levy sneered. "Then you better win."

"That," Gajeel said, heading for the door, "is exactly the plan."

* * *

Natsu sat in Fairy Tail's balcony with Gary, Lucy, Cana, and their captain, Erza. Not even Happy was allowed to be with them. Natsu felt a bit betrayed by the softer rules in place for this Dragon Festival, but when he looked across the arena and saw Happy giddily talking and sitting with Master and Panther Lily he felt much more at ease.

He leaned against the stone railing as the somewhat gender-neutral Mato strolled out, the crowd giving them a minor bit of clapping and cheering, though Mato ignored it. He observed the commentary booth, Lola, Yajima, and Doranbolt, all preparing themselves and doing a little conversating. He heard Gray and Cana making small talk while Erza and Lucy also watched on, awaiting Gajeel's arrival. Natsu stretched his back and arms a bit.

"Man, it's been a while since I last saw Gajeel fight," he said to nobody in particular. At this point he just wanted to create noise for himself; the slight lull of the crowd was putting him to sleep. Not to mention the last few hours were rather action-less.

He stole another glance to Lucy, who had the ghost of a smile upon her face. She felt a good bit of disappointment in not being able to come in first for their competition, seeing as how confident she and Erza had been that Lucy was one of the best dancers of any wizard guild. Fairy Tail sat at third place, tied with Mermaid Heel, according to Erza, and that wasn't likely to change if Gajeel won. If anything it could tie them for second; Sabertooth's Dobengal really managed to steal the show.

Natsu rubbed his chin, the math hurting his brain a bit. He just wanted to see some cool fights. He had no idea what the other matchups were besides the one about to play out. He tried to see himself fighting Ichiya, and grew a smile of his own when he remembered the last time he actually got to witness Ichiya: way back in the Grand Magic Games before Tartaros, Ichiya singlehandedly took down Quatro Puppy's Bacchus and Warcry. Now _that_ was awesome.

Natsu played the situation out in his head: Fire Dragon Iron Fist versus that Smiling Smash or whatever it was that Ichiya called it. Ichiya had grown to be about Elfman's size but probably with a bit more muscle than most of Elfman's forms. That, in terms of raw strength, put him pretty high up there. Natsu tapped his chin.

Now, how strong was Bacchus, really, to be taken down like that? Or Elfman? He blinked and noticed a bit of snot running down his brain from all the concentrating.

"Man, too much thinking can be dangerous," he muttered.

"For you, perhaps," Erza said behind him.

Natsu flung his hands in the air. "Oh, _now_ you pay me some attention?"

Lucy giggled for the first time since her defeat, and Natsu's smile grew a little bigger.

"You're such a dolt," she said.

Natsu found himself incapable for words until he looked at Erza, and then said, "Well, hey, I had to give it a shot."

"And what, pray tell, were you thinking about?" Erza asked. She stepped around the conversating Cana and Gray, who, reading Gray's lips, appeared to be talking about Juvia or something.

"Ah, just how Ichiya stacks up against me," Natsu said. "And, I guess, that metalhead Gajeel."

"I suppose we'll have to see," Erza said. "I believe I heard Blue Pegasus had a great hand in the clean-up around Fiore. Must've given Ichiya quite the amount of time to do various kinds of training, wouldn't you say?"

Natsu nodded. "Yeah, I guess so."

"He'd probably pound me," Lucy said.

Natsu's face flushed and he looked at Lucy with the pale expression. Her face was red as Erza's hair, and Erza was doing her best to keep the laugh from bursting from her mouth.

"Wait, _who_ is pounding you?" Cana burst, probably loud enough for Fairy Tail to hear across the way.

* * *

Gajeel sauntered onto the arena grounds, his fists clenched, his opponent approaching from the other side, the crowd roaring, the announcers hollering at them various statistics and facts. Gajeel tuned all of it out, focusing only on the pudgy little man that approached.

If Ichiya represented anything, it was to not judge a book by its cover. His Parfume magic made him exceptionally dangerous in combat: any one of his vials he sniffed or summoned from his body could mean myriad things. That Power Parfume would present a major problem for any wizard not made of iron, but it was yet untested against iron itself.

Worse, Ichiya could have some sort of magic-negating parfume, meaning Gajeel would have to rely solely on his physical body. While he knew he was tough, that drunk Bacchus got taken down in a single hit, and that dude was made of just raw human muscle. Gajeel, without his magic, probably wasn't as strong.

The Iron Dragon Slayer ran his hands through his jet black hair and stopped. Mato, the little tomato-headed weirdo, stepped out between them, raising their hands. They had a familiar scent, but Gajeel couldn't quite pin it down.

"As promised, the first fight of our Day 1 is here!" Mato exclaimed. "Fairy Tail's Gajeel Redfox and Blue Pegasus's Ichiya Kotobuki!"

The crowd roared again. Gajeel unfurled his fists and just curled his fingers in and out in anticipation.

"I appreciate all that you did against that devil Acnologia," Ichiya said. "You are a true _maaan_."

Gajeel nodded. "Heard your airship really helped out, too. Guess I shouldn't beat that much crap outta you."

"Let's make a game of it then, shall we, _meeen_?" Ichiya asked. Gajeel leered, and Ichiya explained, "As this is a festival celebrating magic and not brutality, why not make it more on spectacle than force?"

Gajeel grimaced. If that were the case he would gladly swap places with Lucy so she could show off her spirits again.

Ichiya continued, "Whoever lands the first clear blow on their opponent shall be declared the winner." Ichiya held up two fingers. "However, there should be two rules, one of my own discretion, and one of your own, _meeen_."

"Alright, you first," Gajeel said.

"I say that we must make like the dragons and fly, _meeen_ ," Ichiya said.

Gajeel cocked an eyebrow, but didn't want to question the man's ideas. "Okay, then I say whoever draws first blood wins."

Ichiya grinned. "Splendid! I knew you'd be a good sport, Gajeel."  
Gajeel grimaced. He much preferred being on the ground and to have access to Shadow Iron Dragon Mode, but being in the air also put Ichiya at a disadvantage.

Gajee's eyes widened. Wait, if he flew, that meant…

"Everything set?" Mato raised his hands before Gajeel could retort. "Then here we go!"

" _Meeen_!" Ichiya exclaimed. " _Parfume: Air_!"

Ichiya waved a hand over himself and Gajeel, and instantly Gajeel felt himself go airborne. His stomach heaved at that exact moment and he put up a cross block to defend himself. Chapati Lola explained to the crowd just what a massive mistake Gajeel made.

"Oh no! It seems like Gajeel's Dragon Slayer abilities are really coming back to bite him!"

"Don't worry, friend, the effects last only for five minutes," Ichiya said. "That gives me plenty of time to put you back down after I've beaten you!"  
Gajeel snarled. The effects of flight weren't nearly so bad as being stuck on a vehicle. He readjusted himself but the nausea still settled in. He kept his arms up, glaring across the way at the cheeky little bastard smiling wide at him.

" _Fleet-Foot Parfume: Zero Distance Inhalation_!"

Ichiya spun around in a few circles then stopped and Gajeel saw a flicker of movement, then another, then Ichiya was lancing right toward him.

Ichiya rammed his head into Gajeel's gut but Gajeel held strong and just flipped end-over-end a bit in the air. He managed to catch himself by exerting a powerful magic aura, then pushed himself forward but stopped halfway and held his gut in check.

"Here I come, _meeen_!"

Ichiya appeared overhead, elbow down, ready to drive Gajeel right into the dirt. Gajeel gasped and managed to get out of the way. Ichiya, like a meteor, dropped to the ground, then cut off his magic and spun around, striking a loving pose for the crowd. Gajeel sighed, feeling a bit of a gag as the weightlessness consumed him once again.

Not much time left. Gajeel glowered down at Ichiya, who floated back up toward him, arms crossed.

"Much as I appreciate what you've done, as I said, I must also respect and honor my guild, Gajeel, and that means defeating you," he said, then let out a long sigh. " _Meeen_."

"Here it comes!" Lola exclaimed, and Gajeel could sense it.

Ichiya roared and a golden light captured him. His magic power knocked Gajeel back, sending his body into a tizzy. Gajeel bit down on his lip, springing up some blood, the pain momentarily distracting him.

" _Power Parfume_!" Ichiya roared. "I'm afraid this is the end, my dragon slaying friend!"

Gajeel stopped himself again by punching out at the wall with an Iron Dragon Club. He managed to swing his arm up to catch Ichiya, but Ichiya blocked it and repelled it. He launched at Gajeel, who swooped to the side and just managed to get out another attack but Ichiya swatted it away, given its low strength.

Ichiya slammed his elbow into Gajeel's two metal arms. Gajeel shot toward the ground but reached out and punched down at the ground, keeping himself airborne, and in more torture.

Gajeel formed his hand into an Iron Dragon Club again, then punched himself hard in the face. The crowd went silent for a moment before Gajeel screamed and punched himself again. The pain completely consumed his mind, taking him away from the nausea at hand.

No time. No time, all pain. Focus on the pain, draw your strength from it. Gajeel roared again, feeling his draconic power flow through him, course through his veins.

" _Iron Dragon Roar!"_

The blast of magic crashed against Ichiya, who tried to hold it back, but was unable to fully, and took the brunt of the blast, allowing the rest to crash to the ground.

"That's the spirit, _meeen_!" Ichiya exclaimed.

Gajeel shouted again, exploding his aura around him. He had at most one more attack before he'd have to inflict another bit of harm, but he ran the risk of drawing his own blood and forfeiting the match at that point.

" _Power Parfume: Max Men_!" Ichiya exclaimed, and his massive muscular body tore through the sky right up toward Gajeel.

Gajeel steeled himself, literally, then shut his eyes tight, watching as Ichiya moved from the sunlight under the shadow of the statue.

Ichiya punched out where Gajeel had just been, then stopped and whipped around. The entire crowd, too fell silent, and even the announcers were confused where he went.

"How…how'd he just vanish like that?" Lola wondered.

Ichiya turned once again, just in time to see Gajeel reappear from the shadow, foot extended. The metal sole of his foot crashed against Ichiya's face, springing blood instantly from his nose and sending him rocketing toward the ground. Ichiya created a tiny crater where he landed and slid in a bit of a rut. The magic holding Gajeel in the sky dropped and he plummeted as well, but turned his lower body iron and took the fall with ease.

Gajeel sighed, the knots in his stomach finally untying themselves. He breathed a bit easier and stood up. Ichiya managed to get back up as well, not all that affected by the attack, but he smiled and bowed to Gajeel.

"I concede, _meeen_ ," he said.

Mato leapt in between them and threw his hands up. "It's over!"

"My, what a battle!" Lola exclaimed. "Truly hair-raising all the way through!"

"Indeed, it was quite difficult to determine the outcome," Yajima said.

Gajeel blocked out whatever else was said and made his way across the arena toward Ichiya, who bowed to Gajeel again.

"You tricked me," Gajeel said. "You knew it would make me pretty much prone, didn't you?"

Ichiya grimaced, but nodded. "Yes."

Gajeel stopped just in front of the little man, then clamped a hand on his shoulder. "I like it. Almost had me there, gotta admit."

"I figured it was my best way of being able to defeat you," Ichiya said. "After all what hopes do I have against a Dragon Slayer?"

"One," Gajeel said. "That one."

* * *

Minerva raised her hand to chuckle into. Rogue raised his eyebrow at Minerva. "What is it, Minerva?"

Minerva sighed and waved her hand. "Nothing. Just an interesting bout is all." She looked keenly to Rogue out the corner of her eye. "Does it bring you a little pride knowing that you, in a way, helped him win that round?"

Now it was Rogue's turn to smile. "Yes, a bit. Gajeel's truly become a master with the shadow magic he took from me."

"Not as good as you, of course," Minerva said, resting a hand on Rogue's shoulder. He patted it, holding down a blush as best he could. Minerva slid her hand down to his elbow, stopped, then laced their arms together and brought them to the edge of the balcony.

Gajeel and Ichiya walked off the battlefield together, both not that harmed and jabbering away. Mato waved to the crowd again, trying to keep the energy up as best he could.

The next match got underway quite fast. Milliana of Mermaid Heel came prancing out as fast as she could, coming to a sliding halt. Across from her, Warcry of Quatro Cerberus came rushing out as well.

The hairs on Milliana's body stood up and her tail shot into the air at the sight of the dog-suited man. Minerva stifled another chuckle.

However, it was not Milliana that was in tears. Instead, Warcry burst out into tears. Minerva's arm tensed and Rogue leaned forward on the railing.

"Ah, that's right, he has Tear Magic," Rogue muttered. "Suppose we'll get to see much more of that this time around."

"Yeah, he's just lucky he ain't fighting me," Orga growled behind them.

The fight got underway. Milliana prowled around her opponent, eyeing him keenly while Warcry just let the tears run wild, spilling magic power out of his body but also gaining much more power in the process. Milliana seemed to notice, as each spike in power made her hair stand up a bit more.

When Warcry was at last ready, he whirled around to Milliana and sprinted at her. Milliana tensed, then leapt in the air over him and wrapped her tail around his throat. She flung herself forward and slammed Warcry to the ground. Milliana slid on the ground, spun, and bolted at him, ramming into his chest with her body and ramming him into the back wall.

Warcry tried to stop but Milliana used her quick reflexes to get out of the way. Warcry pushed himself away from the wall and dashed at Milliana, running like a mad dog at her. She easily stepped to the side but he swiped and his tears lashed out at her. As if someone just took her and picked her up, Milliana flung back, tumbling on the ground until her tail helped her regain her balance.

Milliana shook her head, stunned.

"Intriguing," Rogue said. "He has a ton of natural magic just stored up inside."

"Yes, but he's quite aimless with it," Minerva muttered.

Warcry once again charged Milliana, who seemed to know what to do. Unfortuantely, her feet got tangled up and she tripped forward, but it also threw off Warcry's attack.

"Though, that might be a shared trait today," Minerva said.

Milliana was the first to get up and clawed aimlessly at Warcry.

"Just stay down stay down stay down stay down!" she exclaimed over and over. Warcry managed to get her off of him, but she snagged his arm with her tail and flung him around again, making him quite dizzy.

With Warcry dizzily standing still, Milliana had a perfect target of attack, rushing at him and slamming her feet into his chest with ease. Warcry stumbled back and fell over, too dizzy to move, and the match was over.

Milliana leapt into the air, her tail and hands and legs running wild. She ran laps around Mato, who tried to properly congratulate her but she just would not stop.

"She's like a little kitten," Minerva said.

"It would seem so," Rogue said. "Though not even the Exceeds have that much energy pent up in them."  
"Not many of Sabertooth do," Minerva said. "I think Orga may be our most energetic member?"

"No, definitely Sting," Rogue said.

Minerva's lips curled to a nasty grin. A beautiful smile crept onto her face. Rogue blushed and had to look away.

"I think you've got a lot of pent up energy too, Rogue," Minerva said. "You just need the right catalyst to let it out."

"Are you suggesting I fight this round?" Rogue asked.

"No," Minerva said. She patted his arm. "Just trying to loosen you up a bit is all."

Rogue felt an odd sigh of relief when Minerva removed her arm, but it was immediately replaced by longing. Minerva stepped away and Rogue's eyes lingered too long on her body. He blinked and returned his attention to the field.

* * *

Lucy scratched something in her hair and leaned against the balcony while Warcry was carted off and Mato finally managed to calm Milliana down a bit, at least enough for her to claim her victory and scamper over to the Mermaid Heel balcony.

"Fast fight," Natsu said.

"Milliana never was one to take things slow," Erza said. "Though an interesting matchup."

"Because of the cats and dogs thing?" Cana asked.

Erza shrugged. "I thought it clever."

"Predictable, really," Cana said.

Lucy crossed her arms over her chest. The crowd grew to a fever pitch after the speed and ferocity of the last fight compared to the slow, methodical one Gajeel found himself in. Still, Lucy couldn't be happier that Fairy Tail managed to secure a point and secure themselves at second place…though still tied with Mermaid Heel, a less-than-favorable position but one that, at the moment, put them closer to the top.

"Anyone know who the next fight is?" Lucy asked.

"No clue," Erza said, though she was clearly lying right through her perfect white teeth. Lucy just rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the arena.

"Well, things don't look too bad so far," Natsu said. "No surprises, I mean."

"Were you worried?" Gray asked, snark laced all throughout his voice.

"Yeah, for you," Natsu jabbed right back.

Lucy sighed but didn't stop the warm smile from latching onto her lips. She still had some butterflies in her stomach, even though her part in the games was, at the moment, over. She wasn't going to participate in any further events nor would she be fighting anyone, since Erza used her one reserve role in Gajeel for that fight with Ichiya.

So, why so nervous?

Her eyes widened and she quickly averted them. She'd been staring at Natsu. They were butterflies for the damn arena, they were butterflies for the damn Dragon Slayer!

Lucy so desperately wished to quiet her mind, but couldn't. It raged like a tsunami in there. She tried to focus on the arena, on the dancing pumpkin person.

Thankfully, Chapati Lola chimed in to distract her. "Up next, we've got quite an interesting matchup. Making their first appearance in the Dragon Festival is Sorciere, headlined today by Sorano!"

Sorano stepped out of the tunnel, waving to a crowd of mixed feelings, but of several cheers from Sabertooth, Fairy Tail, and some in the crowd who may have seen her during the battles against Alvarrez. Sorano stopped and bowed to Mato, who hesitated, then bowed back. Weird.

"Her opponent will be a man you ladies may know a thing or two about, a wizard from the new Orochi's Twilight! It's Bora of Prominence!"

"Sorano!" Lucy's voice boomed over the crowd. "Kick his ass to next week! You hear me! Kick! His! Butt!"

Sorano looked over her shoulder as if Lucy were speaking a foreign language, then held up a tentative thumbs-up. Almost just as loud another voice carried over the arena, exclaiming, "You better listen to Lucy, Sorano!"

"Is that Juvia?" Gray muttered.

"Let the match begin!" Mato exclaimed.

Lucy returned her attention to the field, where Sorano studied her opponent, and her opponent studied her, although for much different reasons.

"My, you certainly are something," Bora said. "I don't think it'd be right of me to fight a woman like you."

"You don't know any women like me," Sorano said.

Bora waved that off. "I've been with plenty of women like you, sweety. All looks and mouth. You're just wearing like it is, really."  
Sorano, Lucy observed, wore a different outfit than normal: a long, low-cut white dress that did not hug too tightly to her sides. Her angel wings actually flowed out the back, while the front of her dress cut short, revealing her thighs. She had sleeves on her arms to match, with angel wings running out the side of those as well.

"I want you to say that again," Sorano said. "To my face. That way I can remember it when I put it on your tombstone."

A chill ran down Lucy's back.

"Oh, wow," Cana muttered.

Bora chuckled. "Well, can't say I hate a girl with spirit." He ignted his hands with purple fire. "Though to be honest, I have to be quick with you. My guild doesn't have business with Sorciere we have business with Fairy Tail. So just concede and we'll get on with why I'm really here."

"And I'm here to win, and to win, I have to crush little men like you," Sorano said. "Now, say it again. Tell me what I'm doing here."

Bora snarled. "Fine, you stupid little witch. But don't say I didn't warn you. _Hell Prominence_!"

Several women in the audience gasped as Bora prepared his ultimate attack. He slammed his arms together and formed a large purple magic seal. When he opened his palms a long stream of purple fire shot straight at Sorano, who didn't even move, didn't even blink. Lucy felt the heat of it from up in the balcony.

Bora roared with laughter. Sorano raised a hand, glowing with white-gold magic, then swung out. The fire hit the hand and veered away, shooting across the sky and harmlessly away from Sorano, who still did not blink. She took a step toward Bora, whose mouth hung agape.

"You've never met a woman like me," Sorano said. "A woman who doesn't care about your charms, not even for a second. A woman who wants to do everything she can to rid the world of men like you."

She held a single hand out and said, " _Raguel_."

A massive golden light blasted from around Sorano before capturing the arena in pure white light, and then, when everyone's blindness settled, a figure of translucent white light stood behind Sorano, towering to be almost as large as any of the surrounding statues. Bora quivered and tried to scoot back. The angel looked down at him and he froze.

"Say it again," Sorano said.

Bora looked over his shoulder, to where Orochi's Twilight all sat. They nodded to him and the fear washed away from his face. He managed to get back to his feet and glower at Sorano.

"I've not just been idly sitting around, either," he said. "And I'm not afraid of some angel! Go on, try to hit me with that thing!"

"Go," Sorano said, pointing forward.

Raguel nodded and swung down at Bora.

" _Red Carpet_!"

Bora slid away with ease from Raguel's attack. He howled with laughter, taking Sorano out of his field of vision. When he spun back around, though, there she was, having been flung by the massiv angel. She punched Bora across the face with a fist full of magic. He crashed to the ground, his jaw clearly broken.

Raguel stood over him, palm out, facing him. Bora, shaking, afraid, helplessly watched as Sorano landed near him and planted her foot on him.

"Just wearing it like it is, right?" she asked, and kicked him into the side wall, instantly knocking him out, if the fear of Sorano's rage didn't do it already.

"That's it!" Lucy cheered with the crowd. "Hell yeah, Sorano!"

"Quite amazing," Erza muttered.

Lucy and Juvia cheered Sorano off the arena, who strutted without any hint of looking back at Bora. In that moment, Lucy wanted nothing more than to be as cool as Sorano of Sorciere. They'd have to talk after the battles were all done.

* * *

Doranbolt sighed and shook his head. He knew Bora didn't stand a chance in that match, but for Sorano to just destroy him was also quite surprising. Bora wasn't that much of a slouch, which meant that Jellal had been whipping the old Oracion Seis into some major shape. He stole a glance down at the schedule Yajima had for the coming days. Indeed, there were some interesting matchups on that page.

"Who's next, Mr. Yajima?" Doranbolt asked.

Yajima placed a hand over his mic and said, "Actually, it's the match I'm most curious about."

Doranbolt raised an eyebrow. "More exciting than Gajeel and Ichiya?"

"Not exciting, but curious," Yajima said. He pointed to it.

Doranbolt's eyebrows raised even higher and he placed a hand over his own microphone. "Oh, that is quite the intriguing matchup." He grinned. "I would rather like to see that."

He found the names on the paper and soaked them in, trying to imagine what the final battle of the day, Carla vs. Dobengal, would look like.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! I hope you've enjoyed Day 1 of the Dragon Festival so far, from the Dance Battle to 3/4s of the battles. For the sake of length, and theming for chapters, I decided to leave the last fight out. Gotta have a little bit of build-up, you know?**

 **Let me know what you think of the goings-on so far, and if you like what you see here, check out my other _Fairy Tail_ fic _Fairy Tail - New Era_ , which is approaching it's 100th chapter :DDDDDD (mind=blown)**

 **Also I thought I'd give a shoutout to _The New Tournament_ which is another _Fairy Tail_ Grand Magic Games fic that's just gotten its tournament underway and it's pretty fun stuff (it's also got a few nifty crossover elements to it). **


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